Forever Night

Chapter 9

The Sea King

Time was fluid in the water …

She laughed. It was impossible not to laugh at such an absurdly stupid thought. She 'ran', or whatever you'd call it, to catch up with her partners and tugged on Gajeel's sleeve.

"Food!" she said, as loudly and clearly as she was able.

Lily nodded his agreement, and after a moment so did Gajeel. She beamed her joy at them with a grateful smile and created a shield to push back the water, banishing their bubbles as the walls sealed around them.

"I'm starving," she said in a happy voice. She manifested three hearty meat pies, three generous mugs of tea, one large word of iron, and one small but merry fire.

Deep down she was still a little miffed about Gajeel's response to how she handled the Umibouzo, but she decided to focus more on her success in handling the creature – no small feat – instead of his attitude. Besting one of the more powerful demons of the sea was something she could be proud of! Sure she didn't beat it with her fists or a sword or anything like that, but no one else she knew (except maybe Lucy) would have had a clue how to handle an Umibouzo.

They probably wouldn't have even known what the thing was, since foreign sea-creatures were hardly a common area of study.

She rolled her eyes, And since study isn't a common area of training for Fairy Tail mages.

So, she was proud of herself, and giddy with that pride.

"How far to the chasm?" Levy asked the other two while they ate.

Mouth full of metal, Gajeel pointed to his right, "Bout four miles that way, give or take. Smell's still faint, but the bastard's there, no question." His grin, full of teeth and shards of iron, was terrifying.

"So. How are we killing this kraken?" she asked. Not for the first time.

"Lop off the tentacles," Gajeel answered, "unstuff the head."

"Unstuff ..." she looked down at the remainder of her meat pie and sat it aside. "Unstuff the mantle, how?"

"For a Bookworm you catch on damn slow."

She bristled, but the grin told her he was teasing. Deep breath in, deep breath out. "I assume you mean to cut out the interior nervous system, but the mantle of a kraken is said to be huge. That will take a long time, and even with the tentacles removed, the thing will be deadly."

"Sword can be huge too," Gajeel looked away from her, into the water. "Huh. Maybe I'll just cut it in half. That could work too."

"Too fast for that," Lily was shaking his head. "Levy was right, we've got to weaken it first to slow it down."

"You realize there's no way we're going to get this done by tomorrow. If I'm right, and I am, the day's almost over. Either you're going to be late getting it back to your client, or we're going to have to take the train back."

Gajeel gave a small twitch, which might have been a shudder on a weaker mortal. "We'll figure something out."

"Hard to fit a kraken on a train," Lily said in a soothing voice.

"Hard to carry a kraken. I'd think putting it on a train would be easier."

Lily shot her a dark look, and Levy gave him a sweet smile in return. Gajeel was mean to her earlier; she could be mean as well.

A ripple in her barrier caught her eye, and she saw movement in the water beyond her protections. "Gajeel!" she yelled as she jumped to her feet and lifted her hands in defense.

Gajeel had a sword for one hand and a ram for the other, and Lily was growling at her side.

The ripples grew stronger and her knees bent as she settled into her stance.

And then the enemy appeared, a merman, trident in hand, astride a brilliant red hippocamp, and she nearly fell over with a sense of relief.

"Marrei!" she called and the merman grinned and reined in his giant seahorse.

"Levy. The fish told me you walked the sea floor, but I couldn't believe it without seeing you myself. And with companions along," he spared a long second to study Gajeel and Lily, "Such a foolish trip for such a brilliant woman."

She could feel her partners' eyes on her, but she did not look away from Marrei. Merfolk were generally amicable, and over the past few trips Levy had struck up a fairly friendly relationship with many of them, but they were vain and fickle, and she would do her best not to make Marrei believe she thought anyone was more important than him.

"We're guild mages, Marrei, sometimes that means doing dangerous jobs for our guild."

"And what dangerous job do you do this day, Levy?"

"We, my guild mates and I, are hunting a kraken."

The hippocamp danced sideways, skittish at the very mention of the word, and Merrei's eyes widened while his blue-black tail twitched. "That is a dangerous job, and it gives me cause to repeat my previous statement: That is a foolish job for such a brilliant woman. I would expect you to realize the inevitable consequences for such a mission."

"I realize the possible consequences, yes. But, Marrei, I hardly think they're 'inevitable'. I am, as you say, intelligent, and my partners are physically very strong. I believe we have a chance. A good chance."

"I would not see you die in my waters, Levy."

"I will not die, Marrei."

"No," he agreed, and directed his seahorse closer to her wall, "as I promised, I will not allow you to come to harm here. But, I cannot make such a promise for your companions; the kraken is one of my subjects, and I will not allow landwalkers to destroy it."

Seals, sleek and dark, appeared at the Sea King's side, and Marrei pointed his long trident – made of sea glass and volcanic rock – at Gajeel and Pantherlily.

"Foca, Selo; take them," he commanded, and her barrier split before Marrei's weapon like it was made of nothing but wet rice paper and hope.

"No!"

Author's Note: Cookin' with gas now, I believe. I guess this is a bit of a cliffhanger ... so that's exciting. Anyway, thanks to 89niners for being pretty much the best and most loyal reviewer ever. :D Very heartening and inspirational, that. Have a good week! I'll update ASAP, per usual.