Forever Night
Chapter 5
Raindrops.
Leaving the waystation was an ordeal. Gajeel wasn't exactly a morning person, and Lily's need to tease latched firmly on to his partner's surliness.
"Stop yapping and start walking," Gajeel had a hand over his eyes to block some of the sunlight, "we're running behind schedule."
"We wouldn't be," Lily reminded him, "if you learned to get out of bed at a decent hour."
"We had a schedule?" she asked.
"Course we did," he yawned, "client wants the thing Monday."
She squeaked and stopped in her tracks, "Monday? That's in five days! Two to get there, two to get back since you're too … ah, since we … since we can't take a train-"
"Fucking trains," he grumbled.
"That leaves one day to catch this thing! A kraken … we don't even know if there is a kraken there, and it likely won't be in the cove itself, we'll have to go further out to sea, but if there is …. do you know how dangerous a kraken is?"
"Not as dangerous as me."
She couldn't see him, but she could see the cock-sure grin on Pantherlily's fuzzy little face.
"We think that the mermaids and selkie's you found should be able to tell us where the kraken is. And we know there is a kraken there because we smelled it on you."
"Yes as dangerous as … what? You smelled it on me?"
"Yep," Gajeel hadn't stopped walking. She jogged to catch up.
"Not much," Lily reassured her, "but it was certainly there.
"How in the world do you know what a kraken smells like?" she asked, incredulous.
"Well, they eat whales don't they? You smelled like squid, but not really, octopus, but not really, and whale rot. Not exactly high magic, Bookworm."
"Okay, fine, but capturing a kraken is high magic! At the very least it takes time. It must be done properly by weakening the creature through lost of food and over-work, then baited, and then finally captured. It's a patient task...
"But I don't know why I'm surprised. Why would you do things the proper way? Of course you're not going to be patient," she threw her hands up in disgust.
"That's why we brought you, Shrimp," Gajeel turned so she might see his sharp grin.
The rubies set in his narrow eye sockets burned. She swallowed. Shamed. She wasn't frightened of him. She wasn't. She was the opposite of frightened of him, and he knew it.
Sweat rolled down the back of her neck and soaked into her collar, "Don't call me Shrimp."
It was a weak response.
"But krakens," the corners of his eyes crinkled and his cheeks stretched, "really like shrimp, and little girls too-"
"-and you did say we need bait," Lily, adorable Lily, finished.
Adorable, my butt.
The three of them stood. Still. Silent. Under the noon sun while gray clouds rolled to cover the muted-blue sky.
Well, she thought, that's not at all ominous.
"We'll see about that," was what she said aloud.
When the rain fell, she only made one umbrella.
Author's Note: Progress. Progress but not much. Thanks everyone for reading thus far, though by the extreme lack of comments ... well I can tell this isn't exactly appealing to many of you, which makes me sad. Not sure if it is the story itself, or the drabble style, the first person cut-ins, or something else. I hope I can make this more appealing to y'all in the coming chapters.