Weather Changes

Chapter 6

My eyes flicker open and I take in my surroundings. "I'm at home?" I think to myself groggily. "How are you feeling Noel?" I hear a familiar voice ask. I turn my head to the side and notice Lisanna sitting there with a bowl of water. "Where's Mirajane?" I ask but as I tried to get up a wave of dizziness hits me and I fall backwards. "Whoa! Be careful, you have a bit of a fever! And she's downstairs with the boys." Lisanna says placing a small wet and folded hand towel on my forehead. "Oh. That's good." I murmur and Lisanna continues to nurse me. "It was such a shock when Mira busted open the door carrying you though, covered in cuts and bruises. It was scary." Lisanna whimpered. I reached my hand over to take hers. "I fell over if I remember correctly so its nothing to bad." I reassured her. "Yeah, the idiot threw herself into a thorn bush." We turn to look at Mirajane standing in the doorway just glaring at me. "Lisanna you can go get breakfast. I'll take over." Mirajane said patting her sisters shoulder as she sat in her seat and watched as she left. "Well, um, come get me if you need help?" Lisanna said but it sounded like a timid question. Mirajane just nodded in response. She left, now an awkward silence loomed over me and Mirajane. "Your so stupid, a blonde bimbo." She said to me looking down at the bowl in her hands. "That's a little mean." I pouted. She just chuckled at me. "The truth hurts." She said but seemed like she wanted to say something else. "What is it?" I ask tiredly becoming self aware of my fever. "I… I don't know." She responded with extremely uncharacteristic uncertainty. "Oh." Is all I say to that. I just watch her sort her thoughts looking down. We just sit in heavy silence. I decide I should speak up. "At least it's not raining right?" I ask attempting to relieve this silence. "Are you dumb? Out of all the things to say you say that." She says with a glare my way. "What do you want me to say?" I ask slightly annoyed. "This Goth seriously brings out the bad in me." I think worried for my behaviour. "I don't know! Maybe I just… I don't know." She says and I think back to her inhuman form walking over to help me. "I'm not scared of you if that's what your worried about." I say taking touching her arm trying to soothe her and assure her that its okay. "Ugh your so stupid! A normal person would be shaking in there boots at such a beast like me!" She stands up quickly in anger and the bowl of water spills over onto me. "Oh no." She mutters under her breath. "What the heck is up with her? She's acting so jumpy." I think worriedly. "Mirajane are you okay?" I ask in concern. "Am I okay?! Look at you!" She almost shouts and goes to get a new cover for the bed. "Your seriously an idiot." She says changing the covers and I shiver from the momentary cold but it quickly goes from the replacement of new sheets. She carefully tucks me in. "Your acting creepy." I say with a shudder. "Oh shut up. I'm not the bimbo who gets a cold from her own magic." She says with a frown and arms crossed in frustration. "You spilt water on me. I think you made it worse." I say with a fake heavy cough and she glances at me. "Whatever." Is her response to a tragically sick person. I huff at her but end up breaking into a real cough. "Here. I brought it from downstairs." She says uncapping some medicine and getting a spoon out of her pocket. She pours some liquid carefully onto the spoon and aims it at me. I look at her through my flushed haze of coughing. "Hehe. What a caring older sister." I murmur and take what's on the spoon. "I was offering the spoon not going to feed you!" She exclaims with mild shock. "I'm not the only one acting weird." She says pouring another spoon. "I'm sick." I blame my want to be friendly on my illness. She just feeds me another spoon of medicine. Mirajane just sits back down and looks at the mess of water on the floor. She huffs and picks up the bowl. "Your so stupid." She reminds me and I roll my eyes and regret it. "I rolled them too hard. Ouch." I think. Mirajane turns to look out the window but I notice her gripping the wooden chair with force. "Are you sure you feel okay?" I ask quietly. "Yeah. I enjoy watching people get flung by a monster." She says sarcastically not looking at me. "Your not a monster." I answer back. "I wasn't referring to me you idiot!" She shoots another insult at me. "I know, I just thought you needed to hear that." I add with a pat of the blanket to smooth it out. Mirajane mistook the action for me trying to get her to sit there. She sat where I patted and reached to take the towel off my head. "Thanks." She mutters quietly. "Don't expect me to be nice all the time!" She quickly adds. "I wouldn't have it any other way." I respond. The sudden feeling of drowsiness came over me. I try to keep my eyes open but its hard. "I'm going to sleep a little bit so I won't be much company." I warn her. She nods. "You might want to go downstairs." I suggest. She just nods again. "Okay. I'm slightly creeped." I think as I begin to doze off.

Two weeks of training later.

Its been two full weeks since I and the Strauss siblings got here. I make my way to the kitchen with a yawn and pour myself some cereals into a bowl. Mother and Father went to deliver some bread to some homeless and should be back later. "Mornin'" I turn to see a groggy Lisanna. I grab another bowl for her and the routine of the waking order took place as I sat to eat my cereals. Elfman and Blaine next then Mirajane comes down ten minutes later than everyone else. I sit quietly waiting for everyone to finish there food. "Hey Elfman! Wanna go to the dojo again today? I want to fight again!" Blaine shouts excitedly. Elfman looks sad and just shakes his head. "Huh? What's wrong man?" Blaine asks as his smile is replaced with a frown. I notice that Lisanna also looks a bit glum herself, and so does Mirajane. "What's going on?" I think with a frown. "Are you guys okay?" I ask with concern. Only Mirajane looks at me in the eyes. "We are leaving later." She states with confident voice. I feel a heat behind my eyes but I understand. "What?" Blaine mutters in his shock. Elfman flinches. Blaine notices and corrects himself. "Well, I suppose you need to huh?" Blaine amended with a quiet uncharacteristic voice. "Guess I'll spar with Noel a lot more then!" He says trying to cheer everyone up but I just pale. Elfman actually laughs at that which causes his sisters to smile. "I'd like to politely decline." I say holding my hand up. "Rejected." He replies with a grin. "Guess I'll be leaving this world." I think with a dark awkward chuckle. "So… when are you going to leave?" I ask getting us back on topic. "In an hour or two. We have a place in mind where we want to go to." Lisanna responds to my question. "Oh." I quietly say. "They're leaving so quickly? Mother and Father might not see them." I think. "At least you have a destination. I'll be rooting for you." I say with a small smile and some relief that they won't be just wandering around. "What should we all do together then?" Blaine asks. We all look at him questioningly. "You know. Something we can all do as a farewell." He states with a grin at his clever idea. "I found a cool place with Elfman last week! Its on the other side of town in the forest but its super pretty!" Lisanna exclaims passing her bowl for me to put on the counter behind me. "That sounds fun! We can get ice cream on the way there too!" Blaine shouts matching her excitement. I look to Mirajane who just sat there with her arms crossed in silence and then to Elfman who looked a bit happier than she did. "Then lets go. No time waste!" I say standing up and gathering the bowls. Everyone got up and headed to the front door. I noticed Mirajane put her backpack on before she stepped out. I follow them outside and lock the front door then pocket the key. "Lead the way." I usher Lisanna to show us and she merrily took a steady pace in the lead.

A few paces onward we reached the middle of town and got some ice cream with our pocket money. We didn't stay to eat it and just hurried on with our ice cream. "I love ice cream!" Lisanna exclaimed walking backwards. "You'll fall." I warn her. "She's not an idiot like you, Noel." Mirajane says quite rudely and I frown at her, she must have sensed it and glared back at me.

We reach the edge of the forest and walk in. I feel an odd sensation which forms goose bumps on my skin but I brush it off as the wind. "How far is it Lis?" Mirajane asks. "Not too far. Just a few more minutes." She says finishing her cone with a crunch. We already finished ours and I looked on in jealousy that she had that bit left and with a few more paces and the sound of running water we got to our destination. A beautiful river surrounded by an array of colourful flowers. "Wow." I breathed in awe. "This is awesome!" Blaine shouted and scared off some birds. "… beautiful." I correct him. "I didn't think there would be a place like this in this thieving town." Mirajane states looking around. I sigh because she still holds it against the town that she got robbed on day one. "I'm tellin' you. Boss won't be happy." We hear a strange voice say. "Shut your filthy mouth." Another guy said. The wind brushed past me with slight force like it was warning me to get out. All five of us take cover behind some trees and bushes quietly. "With the Black Wasp gone we have to take care of this stupid job." A tough sounding guy noted. We watched as eight men strolled past. "The Black Wasp? Again?! No no no! They have accomplices?!" I think with fear. "Job? This is just a job?!" I shake in anger and Lisanna behind me notices in worry and squeezes my shoulder, a quiet way of asking what's wrong. Suddenly a strong wisp of clouds churn from where I crouched and the wind began to pick up. I stood and slowly began to follow them in silence. The other four in the bushes just looked on in shock and stood up as well. "Where's this crap weather comin' from?" The crooks then notice me and take a stance. "Look at this stupid brat." One of them said with a making the others laugh. I raise my hand and hail shoots from the sky down solely onto the men. "Ow! Ouch!" They muttered as the small pellets hurt their skin. "Ugh this cow is a mage!" A skinny man warns everyone and they ready spells against a little girl. "Tell me, tell me about this job." I glare at them. "Um Noel. I think we should go." Lisanna whispers trying to move me but I won't budge. Mirajane stands next to me and readies her own magic. "What do you want from these guys? They're just bandits." She observes. "No. They know why." I say cryptically as a spell comes swirling at us. Elfman absorbs the impact and acts as a shield. "No one attacks my sisters." he states bravely. "That was cool Elfman!" Blaine states jumping into the fray as well. Suddenly I don't feel so alone with my friends and family ready to attack my enemies. I frown and aim my ire at the leader looking person who comes at us with three other men with swords as the other four readied spells to throw at us. I quickly evaded the swings the leader launched at me while Elfman and Blaine made quick work of two other men and Mirajane kicked the other away into a tree and ran at the other men in a demon like form and with a few speedy strikes they met their end while I still dodged and struggled, I sneak in a grab of his swinging arm but he lifts me easily. I use my wind magic to sweep him off his feet and utilise his rope belt to bind his arms as Elfman and Blaine held him down. "W-why are you doing that to him?" Lisanna says after coming out from her hiding place. "I want answers." I reply with a glare at the man I'm sat on. "Come on kid. I habve no idea what you want to know." He looks at Mirajane nervously. "The Black Wasp. The job you had to take care of. All of it." I clarify with a murderous aura that I wasn't aware I was capable of. "These men helped them kill my family, I will get answers!" A voice in my head bellows in my haze of anger."I don- AHHH! Stop please I'll tell ya!" the man shouts in pain as I bend a finger the wrong way, not quite broken but as I set out to break it Lisanna jerks me out of my haze. I look at her and notice her scared expression. I ignore it but stop hurting him. "Tell me." I remind him darkly. "T-there's a band of dark guilds who are workin' to take over Fiore! I'm just followin' orders kid!" He states in fear of pain and the glare of Mirajane. "What orders?" Mirajane asks for me. I listen intently. "We gotta burn down a few small towns to get the higher ups attention so we can take over the big guilds after the send out them help quests." He explains in large amounts of detail. I get off him and kick him in the head so he knocks out like the others. "Um. A bit brutal lil' sis." Blaine says with a frown. "At least we managed to stop a massacre." I say sitting by the river. "It really is a nice spot Lisanna." I tell her with a sad smile. "Bimbo. Are you not gonna tell us what the hell that was?" Mirajane states with impatience. "Its… to do with before I came here to learn magic." I say sadly watching the river flow. "A dark guild called Black Wasp overrun our town and killed a lot of people. The people I called my family." I told them with a clenched jaw. "A man. The guild master took it upon himself to personally torment me. He even placed a mark I can never remove… just to remind me that he'll always be behind me." I shiver in my place. The clouds still overhead blocked the sun and made a dark atmosphere. "Scorch." I hissed the man's name. Blaine put a hand on my shoulder. "Noel. It's okay. You stopped them this time. We understand now, okay?" Blaine says soothingly and sits down on the riverbank as well followed by Elfman and his sisters. The clouds slowly dissipated as I cheered up a bit. The sun warmed us and brightened the scene like it never happened. We stayed sat for a few minutes until Mirajane turned to look at the men. "Well, I definitely won't forget this farewell soon." She joked. "We should turn them in." I suggest looking at them as well. "Yeah." Blaine said standing up to grab the big baby leader. "We'll have to drag them!" Blaine exclaims with a grin and piles two more on the leader and began to drag them. Elfman hoisted two on his shoulders while Mira carried two as well and me and Lisanna grabbed a leg each of the last one. We began this awkward body carrying towards the town.

We brought the bodies to the authorities who looked quite shocked. We didn't bother to try and explain what happened and mentioned they were bandits Toku took out for us so they called him in for questioning and said we could leave. "Poor Toku." Lisanna says in concern. "He'll be fine! He's a man!" Blaine exclaimed with a flex of his own muscles and Elfman just nodded in response. "Come on, Lis, Elf. We need to get off if we want to sleep in a bed tonight." Mirajane said while coldly facing away. Lisanna whimpered at the turn of events but she knew they had to, they had a goal to get to after all. Blaine quickly hugged Elfman brotherly like and Elfman returned it. "See you around lil' bro." Blaine said with a pat and almost teary eyes. Lisanna squeezed me tightly which shocked me quite a bit. "I hope you feel better Noel. Your like a big sister to me." She says which makes me smile and I pat her back. Both siblings go to Mirajane after a few seconds of goodbye. "See you later, Mirajane." I say to her back. "See you." She just says and walks off with her sibling. "What a wierdo. Trying to act cool." I think to myself watching them retreat down a path by the police station. Me and Blaine decide to head home and see if Mother and Father are back yet.

We open the doors to the bakery which were unlocked so we assumed Mother and Father were home. "Oh! There you are Noel!" Mother says running at me from the kitchen and hugging me tightly. "I was sooo worried!" She exclaims with tears in her eyes. "What about me?!" Blaine exclaims. Mother just looks at him and checks him over. "Your fine." She states plainly and returns to cuddling me in worry, Blaine frowns and moves to go grab food. "I'm fine." Blaine mimics. "Did you have a good day?" She asks me. "We bumped into a few bandits earlier but we had Toku with us." A partial lie but mostly true. "Really I'll have to thank him later." She says. "Um. I don't think the other three are coming back though mother." I say looking at the floor. "I know." She says softly patting my head. "Mirajane gave me a note this morning." she showed me a small piece of paper. "Oh." Was all I could say in response. She dragged me to the kitchen. "Lets make some lunch together!" She exclaims with a motherly smile and her husband nodded towards us and prepared the chopping boards for the bread he grabbed from the bread bin. "Could you please get the condiments ready Noel?" She asks and I nod and go get them. Suddenly a wave of dizziness hits me and I fall to the floor with a clatter of sauces around me. Mother rushes over. "Noel?! Are you okay? What wrong?!" She frantically asks as Blaine and Father come to check on me. I then realise that I wasn't dizzy for no reason and clutch my stomach where that mark lays upon my skin. It began to burn so much and made me weep out loud and press firmly into the pain in hopes of it going. I curl into myself on the floor. "Noel! Honey, go get the doctor!" Mother orders quickly and Father nods while Blaine stands and looks to find some pain killers or something. I gasp for air in the sheer amount of random pain searing in my abdomen. Mother doesn't know how to soothe the pain and continues to rub my back. "M-y stoma-" Is all I was able to breathe out. "Your stomach? Let me see." Mother carefully turns me onto my side to try and get a look at me, I remove my hands to see if she can tell what's wrong. She quickly and carefully rolls up my shirt and notices the scar. I look down to see what is hurting me. My eyes widen as I see the scar flaring up a purple colour and making the scar weep a red colour. "W-why on Earthland is t-this happening?" My brain manages to think through the pain. Mother goes to get a towel and some water. "One second Noel." She says with tears threatening to spill over the rims of her kind eyes. "This might help." She soaks up some water with the towel and dabs my stomach with it, a hissing noise accompanied with steam coming off me. The pain subsides and I can finally breathe once again. "M-mother. Thank yo-" I'm stopped mid sentence as the previous pain began to affect me somewhere else. My heart. I clutch my chest tightly as I began to sweat from the amount of pain. "Noel? Are you okay?!" she began to frantically refresh the towel with another bout of water. "J-just perfect. Don't worry abou-t it. My stomach hurts a lot i-is all." I lie through the pain and clenched teeth. Tears continue to flow from my eyes as I pretend the pain is from my stomach. "It's that mark. What is it doing to me?!" I think in fear as a doctor is ushered/carried through the doors of the bakery. "I have a doctor!" Father exclaims loudly holding an old woman with pink hair. "Human! Put me down this instant!" The lady bellowed and she was roughly put down near me in the kitchen. "How rude." She muttered with a glare and noticed my on the floor. She knelt down and looked over the bleeding and burning scar. She proceeded to push mother roughly out of the way. Mother glared at her but it was quickly replaced with concern. "What a kind woman." I think to myself in the haze of pain. "This mark." I hear the lady mutter to herself and looked at her. "It's a curse. An ancient one. Where on Earthland did you get this." She asked. "A-a" I was unable to speak so Blaine spoke up for me. "A man named Scorch. He gave it to her." He said kneeling down holding my hand but the lady swatted him away. "Don't touch her." She glared and he looked shocked. "This Scorch must have gotten his hands on a seal of binding." She said but didn't elaborate further. "Do any of you have magical abilities?" she asked looking around the room. No one but me had them. The woman sighed. "I'll be taking this girl then. You. Man. Help me carry her home." She points at father who frowns at her. "What do you mean you'll take her? You will not take my daughter!" Mother exclaims moving to protect me. "None of you have magic. She needs to be surrounded by magic or that mark will kill her quicker. I'll be taking her." She explains heartlessly which makes mother's tears almost spill as her husband looks to her for something. She looks at me as I falsely clutch my stomach in pain, I manage a small pained smile for her. She nods and Father picks me up and follows the woman out of the door. I look back and see mother hunched over a counter and Blaine trying to soothe her. I begin to feel a swell of sadness and hold my chest instead of my stomach. We receive odd looks from people on the streets and I notice that the woman was carrying a shopping bag. "I'm sorry mother." was all I could think as the aching pain in my chest continued but it was somehow dulled as we got deeper into some forest. "It's a long walk. So be prepared." She stated heartlessly as she continues to saunter with wide strides. I looked up to see Father looking incredibly sad. He looked down. "The doctors were out and I went and found her in a store." He said glumly and oddly quiet. How he knew this old woman was a doctor was beyond me but a sudden thump made me groan. Father looked down in concern. "Is this the way to your facilities?" He questioned loudly. "Yes. If we keep going-" The woman was unable to finish as father slung us both over a shoulder preferring speed over comfort and sprinted in the right direction. "You brutish human! Put me down!" The woman's cries were ignored as he sped through the forest. The force of the running combined with my pain and fear sent me spiralling into a deep painless sleep.

My eyes open. I see nothing. Its just black. I get up and look down. I notice that I'm not standing on a floor but beneath me was purple fire. "What the heck?!" I cry out as the flames grew out, climbing up towards me. The fire all gathered before me and stopped. I stepped back at the heat. The fire took on a humanoid form and just watched me, I think its watching me at least. My feeling of fear dissipates as I notice that its not coming closer but I feel a burning on my abdomen and look down. I see the mark, glowing brightly, mocking me for my weakness, in my sudden bout of shock I stumble back onto the floor and the fire monster reaches out and touches the flaming marking. I look at it wide eyed in terror. "I don't want to die." I think rather pathetically. The monster seems to sense my fear and grins at me just like Scorch did. "I'LL ALWAYS BE HERE." It said in a wispy haunting voice and the monster crawled into the flame on my stomach. The flame on my body just calmed down and in its place the scar burned a hot red but in that moment I felt a seeping feeling making its way up and the heat settled in my heart. "AS YOUR FEAR." The thing said in my mind.

My hands search quickly for the pain. "Hello human." I look around and notice the light and the house I was in. I didn't see father around so I got up. "H-hello." I said timidly. The woman huffed at me and got up to do something. I noticed that I was in her house and just stayed awkwardly on the bed. "Um, thank you." I say as I saw the bandages wrapped around me. She didn't even spare me a glance. I went to get up off the bed but fall backwards. "You've been asleep for two days, your body needs time." She explained coming over with an odd liquid. I take it when she shoves it at me. "Drink." She commands and I do so. I almost spit it out at the odd texture but I swallow it with a weird choking noise. "Is this rubber?!" My mind shrieks in shock. Despite the unfamiliarity of this place I feel oddly welcomed. "It's coffee you ungrateful human." She looked mad. "Coffee? What did she do?!" I think. "Yes. Thank you." I feel rude not to finish it so I gulped it all down in a few large gulps. She huffed loudly at the display. "Barbaric." She muttered with a frown. "What happened?" I ask not really knowing if she would reply decently. "Like I said a curse. A curse from Zeref. It makes nightmares inflict pain upon mages. Mages magic is able to give physical form to the object of fear and inflict pain upon the victim. People without magic just suffer from an eternal binging to the person who inflicted the mark." she explains quite well actually. "C-can it not be countered?" I ask in fear of what will happen to me. "Yes but only temporarily. Magic can actually subside the curse." she said calmly. "But you just said that magi-" I was relieved but she interrupted me. "Yes. But it can only manifest with a small amount of magic, to get you in your weak moments. So I brought you here, a forest infested with etherano." She loudly exclaimed in frustration at my confusion. "Oh. Thank you." I say earnestly then look down to twiddle my fingers. A moment of quiet passes as the woman sighs. "Porlyusica." She huffed out her name quickly. "Oh. Oh! I'm Noel." I respond perked up by her choice to strike conversation… but that's where it ended and I went back to twiddling with my thumbs. "Wait. Two days?! Oh my gosh." I look aghast realising what she said a few moments ago. "When can I go back?" I ask timidly. "Not yet. A few months." Porlyusica says almost nonchalantly. "Wha?!" I stutter. She looks disgusted at me and mutters something about barbaric humans again. "I'll be gone for a while. I'll be back later. Do not leave." She glares at me as she grabs her red cloak and exits through the door. Still in shock I sit there. My hand trails to hover over the bandages. "Not yet. I wonder if mother is all right now." I sigh and lean back onto the bed. I turn my head and notice a picture of a lot of people and a girl with pink hair. "This must be Porlyusica, she looks moody on here too." I think to myself without touching the picture, that would be rude. I stare up at the ceiling. I can't help but think of all the events leading up to this moment. I can't help but feel that I keep taking advantage of all the kind people's hospitality all the time. I raise my hand and watch as I use the wind to entertain me, lowering my hand I watch as it swirls speedily in a circle. Eventually I fell asleep at the boredom of being alone.

I awake to the sound of people talking. I sit up and rub my eyes. "Welcome home, Porlyusica." I say groggily. As I come to I notice a small man looking at me fiercely, then he grins a happy grin. "Hello child." he says to me. "H-hello." I respond awkwardly. He takes my hand and his grin starts to look strained. "I'll get right on it then." he says and hops to the door and leaves. Porlyusica just looks and nods as he goes. "I brought some food for you." She hands me a pack of nuts. "T-thank you." I take the food. "Nuts?" I think to myself as I open it and take some. I offer some to Porlyusica and she just ignores me. I continue to sit and eat, the loudness of the nuts echoing in the awkward silence. Porlyusica's frame grows agitated as I continue to eat loudly, I put the nuts down in favour of not annoying her. "What are you doing?" I ask. "Nothing that concerns you." She snaps, I can imagine the scowl on her face and wince at her tone while she carries on looking through a book at her desk. "This is so awkward. What do I say in this situation?!" I think worriedly. "Thank you for helping me, Porlyusica." I manage to blurt out. She grunted in response. "Do you need me to do anything for you?" I ask timidly as she glances coldly over her shoulder, she sighs in annoyance. "Go get me some green mushrooms from the forest." she says looking back at her desk. I get up carefully so I don't disturb my wound. "In my garden to the left." She clarifies as I get to the door. "So she didn't give me a hard task. She's kind after all." I think with a small smile and exit through the door. I close it behind me and breathe in the fresh forest air. Walking around the tree house to the left I come across a small herb garden and quickly spot the green mushrooms glowing in the sun. Not knowing which part of the mushroom she wanted I carefully dug up the whole thing. "Mushrooms look so creepy. I hate mushrooms." I think grimly as I pull up some more and carry three back inside, I don't want to deplete her collection. I take a step inside and close the door. I hold them and wait for further instructions. "Just put the there." She points for me and I place them at the edge of the desk and take a peek at what she's doing. "It looks like she's reading up on some cream?" I think in confusion and go to sit back on the bed. I trace the lines on the wooden floor. Porlyusica turns and looks at me. "Come with me." She orders grabbing her red cloak again. "My scarf! I had it when I was in the kitchen but-" Porlyusica watched as I held my bare neck and looked around frantically for my blue scarf. "Here." I'm blinded by something soft and pull it off my head to see that it was my scarf. Happiness and relief wells in my heart as Porlyusica orders me "Hurry." She states in a single command and I hurry out the door after her wrapping my scarf around me.

We walk through the forest and I could feel my body get lighter the further in we went. "You should feel good now, that binding seal wont have effect here." She says taking a seat on a log and pulls out a book to read. "Do whatever you want." She states seemingly without a care for my well being. I pout but sit cross legged with my back to her and begin to meditate to increase my magic capacity. "If having small amounts of magic hurts me then I need to make sure I use it moderately." I think logically. I listen to the sound of the wind and how I can feel the earth around me despite having my eyes closed, the warmth of the sun beaming through the trees heating my skin and the sound of birds calling. Last week I decided that I like to meditate to feel the earth and movement around me, its soothing. Every time I hear the pages of Porlyusica's book turn I feel strangely at ease knowing that I'm not alone after all that's happened. Suddenly I begin to feel a strain on my magic and a bead of sweat forms on my brow but I feel a twinge in my heart and lose concentration, my eyes shoot open and I notice a stare on my back. I turn around and see Porlyusica frowning at me. "Let's go deeper then." She closes her book and stands. "Follow." She says as I get up to follow her into twists of bigger and taller trees, I feel my magic container fill quicker and quicker as we delve deeper into the forest. The forest grows darker from the canopy not letting sunlight seep through and an ominous green glow comes from above while vines trickle up trees to the top. "Practice here. It should be easier." She states with a light sweat noticeable on her face as she dabs it away with a sleeve. "Are you okay?" I ask with concern for her old body. "Yes, you troublesome human. Now hurry up and get to work." She says angrily and takes a seat then props open her book. I take a seat on a large tree root as well. "She's doing this for me?" I ask myself and close my eyes to renew my meditation. This time I don't feel as strong a pull from my magic container since the large quantities of etherano fill it quicker than before. I'm able to meditate for longer and feel a lot more productive in the process although personally "I'm not sure how not putting strain on my container will help make it bigger." As if Porlyusica could read minds she answers my inward question. "The vast amounts of etherano quickly enter your magic container and stretches it without restraint, it's one reason why most feel a huge pressure swell within and struggle from the sheer amount of it." She explains as if its obvious then snaps her book shut. "It's dark. We're leaving." She stands and walks back to her house as I scurry to catch up while reflecting on what she has told me. "You say most mages. What do you mean?" I ask quietly. She sighs so hard its like a groan. "Since you have that binding seal I suppose your a more brutish mage." Porlyusica doesn't really explain and just mocks me then continues her journey home in silence.

The moment we step into the house I feel sleepy and that bed looks oh so comfy. I make my way over and sit on the bed and watch porlyusica for a moment and she passes another drink to me. I sleepily mumble my thanks and take a sip. "Its disgusting again." I think groggily but drink more anyway. Porlyusica walks off and closes a door behind her. Assuming she's gone to bed I slide further onto the bed I'm currently occupying. It seems that there is something in this drink, I can feel my body fall back onto the bed in a numb haze as I fight my eyelids in a battle to remain awake, I lose, darkness floods my mind as I watch a purple flame flicker behind my eyelids.

"HELLO AGAIN, NOEL." My eyes snap open and I bolt from my place to an upright position. I stare wide eyed at the purple flame monster before me and it grin back while holding up a pack of playing cards. "LETS PLAY?" It asks but I feel fear grab my heart and squeeze it. The flame pulses a brighter purple along with my heart. "NO?" For some reason it seems serious about playing cards. I weakly nod, not trusting my voice to show any semblance of bravery. I sit down in front of it and it passes out some cards. "KNOW HOW TO PLAY?" It asks and I shake my head. "ANYTHING?" It asks again and I nod. "Snap." I weakly say. It grunts and reshuffles the cards. "WE'LL HAVE TO PLAY THAT THEN BUT GO LEARN SOME MORE GAMES WHEN YOUR AWAKE." It tells me. "W-what do you mean? Can't you just go away?" I ask quietly taking the cards it gave me sceptically. It grins wider and moves closer to me. "DON'T BE SILLY, NOEL. I'M HERE FOR AS LONG AS FOREVER." It states and sits back to place cards in the middle. We continue to play. "SNAP!" It bellows and hurriedly takes the cards into its pile, I pout at the obvious display of mockery. "CHEER UP- ACTUALLY DON'T." It makes a rude remark and chuckles darkly and continues to grin. I watch it place another card in the middle and I do the same. "Why are you here?" I ask timidly again and can feel tears brimming my eyes. "Your ruining my life." I whisper. "THINK OF ME AS YOUR DARK GUARDIAN A- DEMON. I'M FOLLOWING YOU TO LEAVE YOU IN A QUAKE OF MISERY." It chuckles when it finishes its sentence and I can feel my heart pulse every time it speaks. "Snap!" I say quickly and take the small pile. It stares at me coldly for a moment. "You seem a bit friendly f-for a demon." I can feel its ire grow as I mention that it seemed friendly. "I'M STUCK WITH YOU, I MAY AS WELL GET USED TO IT. I WON'T BE GOTTEN RID OF EASILY EITHER. I'LL BE HERE FOREVER AND I'LL BE IN YOUR DARKNESS, WAITING." It says placing a card in between us. "W-waiting?" I ask but it doesn't reply. Instead I see a flash of white obscure my vision. "SEE YOU LATER, NOEL." is all I hear as I see white take over me completely.

I open my eyes yet again and see the old man again but super close up in my face. "Welcome back, child." he says with a kind grin. "You've been asleep for a while, we were getting worried." he says sitting cross legged at the end of the bed so I can sit up. "How long?" I ask. "Three days. Sixteen hours." Porlyusica answers. "Oh. I'm getting used to this long sleep thing." I say groggily and struggle to move my lazy limbs. The small old man chuckles. I feel something in my hand and look to see it. A card. The ace of spades. A strangled sound escapes my throat and I throw the card to the floor. I feel my heart pulse at the sight of it and move my hand to grip my chest. The old man hops off the bed with a scowl and looks at the card, when he sees it he seems to stand still. Porlyusica saunters over and plucks the card from the small old man's hands to give the card a hard glare, she then passes it back over to me. "Look after it, it seems like that demon in you has his own will. Be sure not to let it go." She states cryptically. I look back down to the old man who holds out a wooden box. He opens it and inside it is a necklace. A necklace with an odd symbol on it. "This is from the magic council, especially developed to help you with your demon issue." The old man looks up from the necklace with a grin. "Thank you for your help." I say quietly and take the necklace. I remove my scarf to put the necklace on, instantly I feel a burden be released from my heart, like it gained enough energy to beat normally again. The feeling made me feel giddy with a need to shout something. Instead of going crazy I decide a smile is good enough to express my relief to the two who helped me. The old man gave me a thumbs up and a grin while Porlyusica turned around with a grunt. "Make sure you don't take it off." She stomps to a door and closes it. "Don't mind her, she's a little lonely out here." The old man says like he's revealed something top secret. "You might not remember me but I was here a few days ago, I'm Makarov but you can call me Gramps." he says with a kind smile. "um. Hello… Gramps, I'm Noel." his grin widens at his self given nickname and he nods vigorously. "You'd fit in quite well with my brats." he says good naturedly with a chuckle. "Your brats?" I ask. "They're quite the trouble makers but they're good kids. It's called Fairy Tail." He says proudly. My eyes widen at the mention of that guild but I quickly reign in my feelings. "I- I'm sorry. I don't think I'm good enough for the guild. Maybe in the future?" I suggest timidly unsure of his reply. He looks at me and has a thinking expression which is replaced with a smile. "Your welcome any time, Noel." He hops to the door. "Look after that present!" He walks out the house as Porlyusica walks back in with a sigh. She looks at me with a stony expression. "You can leave later, we'll set off at lunch." She goes to pick up a bag and pulls out another bag of nuts to throw at me, I catch them clumsily and take some to eat. "They're surprisingly filling." I think marvelling at the nuts. "So I can go back home?" I ask when the thought enters my mind. "Yes, later after I check up on you in the next few hours then you can scurry off." She says coldly and I pout at her lack of care for my well being once again. "Meanie." I mumble under my breath which makes her glance sharply at me. I shyly offer a nut to her in a silent ask for forgiveness. She actually takes one which surprises me, she finishes it with an angry look. "Don't touch anything." She orders and slams the mysterious room's door. "Okay." I mutter quietly from my seat on the bed. I decide to take this opportunity to meditate. I make my magic flow swiftly from my container and feel the things around me, I notice the thick etherano centred in the tree house's walls. Its life force. I then take note of the fact no dark feeling is emanating inside me, like the monster thing has left my heart but I know it hasn't, it's just been weakened. With my being able to meditate without being near a load of etherano in only a few days unconscious I feel excited to be able to go back home. "I left mother in a bad state of mind, I hope she's okay." I worry in my head. "Blaine has probably been practising a lot, he is most likely super lonely right now." I continue to think about my brother figure. "Father must have got home safe too, to comfort mother." I try to stop these sad thoughts as I lose concentration and my magic fluctuates. I huff and re open my eyes to see blurs, I lift my hand to move the blur away to realise tear cloud my vision. I hear Porlyusica stomp around and quickly rub my tears away with my arm. "You better not be crying when I step out!" She huffs angrily behind a door. "I'm not!" I reply loudly. She steps out and looks at a clock. "You trained for three hours. Good. Your almost normal so get ready to go." She emphasises the word 'almost' which makes me huff. "I really do lose track of time when I meditate." I think as I feel the emptiness in my magic container. I re wrap my scarf and stand up to follow her out the door. "It's a few days journey." She says opening the door. I follow and nod to her. I shut the door but accidentally slam it and wince at the noise. "Barbaric!" She screeches and checks her door. "Sorry, it's a really light door." I reply shyly. "At least compared to the heavy bakery one." I think about my home for the time being. "Barbaric human." Porlyusica mutters quietly. "I deserved that." I think to myself. "We are leaving." She says strutting west of the forest. I follow closely and quietly, admiring the scenery. "I'll be home soon then I can ask mother to forgive me." I think sadly. "See you soon."