Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 2:- Wild Beasts
It was a couple of hours after waking up to find themselves in this otherworldly predicament that Wendy and her company of Exceed left Tenroujima behind. Lily had caught some fish as he promised and they'd eaten a surprisingly hearty breakfast considering the circumstances. Even Charla had eaten well considering she hated fish, but she had managed to find some of her favourite Darjeeling tea in the rubble of the former campsite they'd set up on the island to help wash it down with.
They were rather surprised when their new companion Mavis sampled a little of their fish and smiled in approval. Lily had commented that surely a ghost didn't need to eat or drink, but Wendy had pointed out that her old ghost Master Roubaul used to drink a lot of milk. Often straight from the jug even after he poured some into a cup, and often forgetting he was drinking it and trying to speak before swallowing.
Mavis nodded, saying that while she didn't actually need food or drink, she was quite capable of eating it even now. Though if she did, she would need to go to the little girl's room later.
"Oh for Edolas, where things made sense to me," Lily had shook his head with a faint chuckle. "I'm still trying to get to grips with what happens in my own new home world and I bet there's going to be a lot more surprising things from this one to come."
But there was one other thing that Happy in particular noticed before they left the island.
"Where are all the animals?"
Mavis especially was stunned she had not realised this earlier, but the island was completely and utterly devoid of animal life. It had not just been the Fairy Tail members that had been on the island when Grimoire Heart and Acnologia attacked it. There had been deer, wolves and waterfowl, along with several giant monsters that looked like giant lizards, huge pigs, carnivorous birds and a multitude of other creatures, some too weird to give a simple description to.
And yet now there were none at all.
"Oh dear," Mavis rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "It looks like the rest of the guild members are not the only things that were scattered across the land of this world. When I condensed the Fairy Sphere I was seeking out all the life-forms on the island. I didn't want an single one of them to die. And now every one of them is gone."
"Well… that's probably going to give someone a bit of a shock," Charla observed dryly.
Mavis giggled a little sheepishly. "I guess it can't be helped now. But if we find any of them we should probably try and figure out a way to return them to the island. Perhaps you could call them my responsibility."
"We'll add it to the list," Wendy mused. "I hope nobody gets hurt by them though."
There was really nothing else that anyone could say on this subject so they had focused on preparing themselves, gathering what supplies they could find. And, eventually, with three sets of wings shining into life, the three Exceed took off from the island and headed out across the great salt sea. Charla insisted on carrying Wendy despite offers from both the guys, while Mavis hovered alongside them with her wind wafting behind her in the wind. Mavis floated forwards rather oddly - her body neither vertical nor horizontal but almost exactly halfway in between. Being horizontal would of course reduce drag, but Wendy guessed that Mavis simply was not affected by such things.
How strange the First Master really was? Some of her attributes, such as her weightlessness, were like the traditional kind of ghost told in the stories, while others just seemed to go against everything Wendy would associate with being a ghost. But then again, she'd never once guessed her old Master was a ghost so… what did she know really?
"Do we know which way we're going?" Charla asked after about half an hour of flying.
"Judging by the position of the sun I would guess that we're heading southeast," Lily glanced around at the sun behind and to their right. "But that's assuming that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west in this world. For all we know it could be the other way around here."
"That doesn't really help build up my confidence," Happy shivered. "I really don't want to end up any more lost than we are."
"Would you like to explain to me how it would be possible to be more lost than thrown into another world like this?" Charla asked pointedly.
"We could be on our own," Happy pointed out.
"… That isn't really more lost than we are now but I take your point," Charla grimaced.
"Maybe we should play 'I Spy' to pass the time?" suggested Happy.
"Please, just no," Charla rolled her eyes slightly.
"There's not exactly much around here that could work for that game anyway," Lily noted.
"That's not true… waves, ocean, sea, blue, sky, cloud… wings, cats, ghosts, Dragon Slayers…"
"Yes, we get the point."
Mavis snorted slightly, catching Wendy's attention. The young Sky Dragon looked across to her and asked, "First Master? Is something the matter?"
"Oh its nothing," Mavis smiled over at her. "I was just thinking of how much I've been missing company like this. I'd always been content with my peaceful and quiet unlife on Tenroujima but… I guess there was some part of me that craved a little companionship. And now that I have it again… I'm beginning to wonder how I ever coped without it."
Wendy and the three cats smiled back. "Well, we're grateful for everything you've done for us," Wendy replied earnestly. "You were watching over us the whole time and we didn't even know you were there."
"You truly saved our butts," Happy agreed.
"Hopefully we continue to prove worthy of your company," Lily nodded.
"Worthy?" Mavis shook her head. "It's not a question of worthiness. I may have created Fairy Tail but really I'm no more or less important to the guild than any of its other members, past, present or future. That's the point of this guild - all comrades together. Despite personal rank within the guild we are equal in every other way, no matter who we were before we joined the guild. Boundaries should not matter when it comes to who your friends are. And they shouldn't matter now. And they don't. Three cats, a child and a ghost. How much more diverse can it get than that? But all that matters here is that we are friends. Right? That's what I'd like to be with all of you."
Wendy beamed. "Well, that sounds great to me." She stretched out her hand across the gap. "I don't think I'll ever say no to making new friends. No matter who they are."
"And that's exactly the sort of attitude that belongs in a true member of Fairy Tail," Mavis beamed back, reaching out to grip Wendy's fingers in her own briefly. The two girls shared a warm smile with one another before Happy interrupted the moment.
"Hey, everyone! I think I can see land ahead."
"Yes. So can I," Lily nodded. "That's definitely land. Still a fair distance away but we should be there before nightfall I imagine."
All attention was diverted to the greyish lump that stretched across the horizon in the distance. "Well, at least we have a destination now," Charla murmured. Wendy noted she was breathing a little heavier than usual after carrying her for so long but it was as if the sight of land gave them all a new purpose and they winged their way on.
"I mean honestly!" the loud voice of Molly Weasley rippled through the kitchen on Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. "I had seriously hoped that now that he was back at school they'd just leave him alone. Is it not too much to ask just to let him enjoy this vital period of his education?"
She tossed down the latest issue of the Daily Prophet onto the table and huffed, fussing over a dishcloth as she moved over to wipe a plate with it. She could have used magic but she preferred to keep herself busy at times like this in a vain attempt to distract herself from everything that seemed to be going wrong with the Wizarding World recently.
Especially the Ministry's attempts to constantly find ways to discredit Harry. There were references to him in literally every issue of the newspaper now and none of it was remotely positive - little tidbits that painted him as some narcissistic, egotistical brat that craved the limelight and adulation of the Wizarding World as if it was some addictive drug and he was the junky, when in reality he was nothing but a stressed, desperate teenage boy looking for answers in an unfair world and not getting them.
"Well, if half the things that are being said in this article are true, he's not exactly helping himself," Remus Lupin murmured as he dragged the paper over to re-read it himself:-
BOY-WHO-LIVED SEEKS TO TERRIFY FELLOW CHILDREN
Essentially it was a report about how Harry was spinning nonsense stories about the return of He Who Must Not Be Named to his fellow Hogwarts stories, seeking to convince the younger generation to look up to him as some type of messiah and turn them against responsible adults who were trying to help them. There were a few statements from the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts and Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge, about how Potter had angrily rebelled against her authority, insisting that the students should be learning how to throw dangerous curses at each other effectively rather than learn defence in a safe, secure environment and how he'd attempted to spread discord amongst the class with more lies about the Dark Lord and his return.
"He should be trying to keep his head down," Lupin murmured through tight lips. "He knows as well as any of us what the Ministry is doing, and he should know that simply getting angry at a Ministry official is only going to intensify their distrust of him. If he keeps this up I wonder how long it will be before the Ministry starts stating he might be trying to become the next Dark Lord."
"Oh, do you really think they would go that far, Remus?" Molly fretted slightly, turning around with wide eyes.
"These days, I wouldn't put it past them," Lupin grimaced, flicking the paper across the table, not wishing to see it any more. "At least Professor McGonagall's had a word with him about it. Hopefully he should dial it down now."
"Well, I don't know about you, Remus, but I'm proud of him," the current owner of the house and godfather to the boy in question, Sirius Black, strolled into the room with a sack covered in bloodstains.
"Finished feeding Buckbeak, I see," Lupin noted.
"What this?" Sirius raised the bag. "Nah. I thought I'd pop out and buy you a little something meaty to chew on next week."
"Ah-ha-ha," Lupin rolled his eyes and shook his head, but looked rather amused all the same. Sirius might make light of the fact that Lupin was a werewolf and that the full moon was not far away once again, but a long friendship with the man told Lupin he knew exactly how serious it really was. Lupin rather enjoyed the jokes. Even though he knew Sirius fully accepted him for who he was, the jokes helped to validate this acceptance. He didn't miss Mrs. Weasley's disapproving glance in Sirius' direction, but he decided not to comment. She didn't understand the dynamic of their friendship as well as they did after all.
"Anyway, as I said, I'm proud of him," Sirius nodded towards the paper. "He's standing up for what he knows its right and damning the consequences. You've got to admit that that takes guts."
"Indeed it does, but unfortunately guts are not what we need from Harry right now," Lupin pointed out. "What we need from him is patience."
"I get the feeling that that's not his strongest suit," Sirius murmured as he sat down and put his feet up on the table. "It's not mine either for that matter."
"Oh believe me, Sirius, we all know that here," Lupin snorted.
"I just hope he doesn't dig himself in too much deeper," Mrs. Weasley worried aloud. "Even if they don't go as radical as framing Harry for attempting to become a Dark Lord, how long before someone invents an excuse to cart him off to Azkaban or something. He won't survive a week in there."
"Well, speaking as someone who was in there for a good thirteen years and emerged with his sanity relatively intact, I'd say Harry would be alright. He's tough, that kid," Sirius acknowledged. "Shares that trait with his father. And his mother, come to that. All the same, I'm sure he'd have to do something pretty stupid for the Ministry to try something like that."
"Doesn't it worry you, Sirius?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "What the Ministry might be capable of doing to him?"
"Does it worry me? Of course it bloody worries me," Sirius sniffed. "But I have faith that Harry will be fine. If he starts acting too bone-headed I'm sure that Ron and Hermione will get him back onto the right course. Hermione's ludicrously bright for her age and Ron's got a good head on his shoulders. They'll steer him right, no question."
"I hope so," Lupin mused. "That boy can be awfully stubborn. Another trait he shares with his father. And mother."
"And me," Sirius grinned.
"And you," Lupin nodded with a smile.
It was at this moment that the fireplace suddenly flared to life with bright green flames and another redheaded figure stepped out of the flames. It was Bill Weasley, and he grinned at all and sundry as he shrugged off his outer robes and said, "Hey Mum, Sirius, Remus. Any chance I haven't missed dinner? I could use a good meal after all that hassle at Gringotts toDAGH…"
He was cut off from saying anything else when the fire flared again and another person stumbled out of it, colliding with Bill's back and sending them both sprawling into a heap on the ground.
"Ah, crap!" muttered the new arrival. "I hate travelling by Floo Powder I really do."
"Afternoon Dora," Sirius greeted his cousin as she and Bill struggled to disentangle themselves.
"Hoi! I've asked you not to call me that how many times now?" Nymphadora Tonks looked up with a scathing expression. "Would you please just call me Tonks, Sirius?"
"But your parents - my aunt and uncle, are called Tonks too," Sirius snickered. "I can't just call you that. Besides, Dora's much better than Nymphadora isn't it?"
"Yeah, but its not brilliant," Tonks murmured.
"I could always try Nymphie."
"Oh like hell you will."
"Uh… Tonks, as much fun as this is, do you think you can get off me now?" Bill grinned up from where she was straddling him.
Tonks swatted him, knowing he was only teasing, but clambered off him and almost tripped over a table leg, shaking her brown hair and screwing up her face, using her Metamorphmagus abilities to shift it back to her favourite shade of bubblegum pink, which was apparently too unprofessional for the workplace. Then she clapped her hands together and grinned, "So, what's for dinner?"
"There's quite a bit of Shepherd's Pie left over," Mrs. Weasley replied. "You can help yourself but… aren't we waiting on Kingsley? I thought that he was coming over with you tonight."
"Oh yeah, I'm meant to tell you, there's been a bit of a change of plans," Tonks snapped her fingers as she sat down and pulled over a decent potion of the leftover pie, whipping out her wand to perform a quick Reheating Charm on it. "Kingsley can't make it today. Something came up. Official Auror business."
"Care to give us the details or do we have to pull them out of you?" Bill asked, moving to wash his hands before he dug in himself.
"Well… did you hear about those weird shooting star thingies that they were yapping on about at on the Wizarding Wireless earlier today?" Tonks asked.
"Oh yes, I overheard something about odd looking meteors," Mrs. Weasley hummed. "I thought it was rather unusual but I'm not sure how they could be a cause for concern."
"Well… apparently one of them's been found," Tonks explained with a mouthful of pie.
"Found?" Lupin asked, leaning in with interest. "So they really did hit the ground?"
"Well, at least one of them did," Tonk replied. "This one in particular landed somewhere in a farmer's field not far from the city of Derby. But get this - if the things I've heard about it are true, it's sure as heck not a meteor."
"Then what is it?" Bill asked.
"We're not sure. But I heard it was like some kind of… glowing golden orb just sitting in the middle of the field like some kind of giant egg. About three metres tall and five metres wide according to the reports. But they're not sure what it is so Kingsley and a team of Aurors were dispatched over there with some members of the Department of Mysteries to help analyse it, see if it was dangerous or not. But really we don't know anything about it."
"How peculiar," Lupin pursed his lips slightly. "I don't believe I've ever heard of anything like that."
"Certainly is weird," Sirius agreed. "Does Kingsley think it really could be dangerous?"
"I dunno," Tonks shrugged. "That's pretty much all I know. Except… there was also something about the orb being kinda see-through. Just, like its really translucent. And apparently they think they can see something inside, but they don't know what it could be."
"That does sound troubling," Bill murmured. "Do you think this could be a move by You-Know-Who?"
"I rather doubt it," Sirius scratched his knee absent-mindedly. "Why would he do something so big and flashy when practically the entire Wizarding World refuses to believe he even exists right now. He's got the Ministry in just the position he wants them in right now, blind to his actions. He wouldn't risk exposing himself with something like this, would he?"
"I suppose it depends on what exactly we're dealing with here," Lupin stated. "We should probably relay this to Dumbledore. Find out what he thinks on the matter."
"Yeah, I agree," Tonks nodded. "And also, Bill, Kingsley did want me to let you know you might be called out there at some point. Said they might want a curse breaker on hand to try and figure out what's going on if the Department of Mysteries comes up stuck."
"I'll keep an eye out for the summons," Bill nodded in thanks.
"Still, this is a rather interesting turn of events," Sirius chuckled. "Wonder if the sky is going to throw anything else at us."
"Not much here, is there?" Wendy looked around after a good half an hour of walking. The sun was dipping down close to the horizon by now and once they'd reached land Wendy insisted on walking for a while to give Charla a break from flying. She was carrying the little Exceed in her arms while Lily and Happy hovered overhead, looking around at their new surroundings.
They appeared to have made landfall in a rather mountainous region, rugged cliffs stretching high above the seas and the hilltops rising even higher. Everything about the land was uneven, with jagged stones cropping out all over the place so Wendy was having to watch where she put her feet at practically all times lest she trip on something.
Mavis stood on an outcropping several metres higher with a grimace over her face. "I believe that we may be on another island," she said. "A rather larger island than Tenroujima but an island nonetheless."
"So we haven't found the mainland yet?" Happy asked, his ears drooping slightly.
"Seems not," Lily shook his head. "But perhaps its not far away. And there may still be something on this island that could help us. We should try searching for a settlement or something. See if we can find a map and someone to tell us how to read it."
"It doesn't seem like there's a town anywhere nearby though," Wendy murmured.
"True, but that doesn't necessarily mean that nobody lives close by. Some people do like to live in an isolated place after all."
"Yeah, like Porlyusica," Happy nodded. "She lives far out in the East Forest because she hates humans, but until you came along Wendy, she was Fairy Tail's best healer."
Wendy blushed and murmured, "Well, can we really say that I'm the better healer out of the two of us? Just because I can heal wounds and sicknesses with my Sky Magic doesn't make me better. She could know things that I don't. Maybe I should meet up with her if we ever get back. I bet she could teach me some new things."
"Good luck with that," Happy snickered. "She usually chases people away with a broom."
"…She sounds scary…" Wendy murmured.
"She is," Happy grinned unhelpfully.
"Anyway, to get back to the point," Charla coughed. "We should get about trying to find someone who lives close by, right?"
"Let's just hope that if this is an island there's at least someone on it," Lily agreed, rising higher to get the lay of the land a little more. "Maybe I can go on ahead, do a bit of scouting. I…" he stopped, and froze in the air, his eyes widening as something down on the ground below caught his eye.
And made his heart quicken.
"Huh? What's wrong, Lily?" Wendy caught his sudden silence and asked in concern.
"Um…" Lily hedged, going lower to try and get a better look at what he'd seen. "Maybe… maybe you should come and look at this."
"Well, that doesn't sound good," Charla muttered as the others hurried forwards after Lily, until they found themselves cresting a large rocky precipice and looking down into a dip in the ground below.
Wendy gasped and placed a hand over her mouth at what she saw.
Bones.
Animal bones.
Or, to be more precise, a single animal carcass lying broken on the ground. It's long legs and pointed skull indicated it had probably once been a deer of some kind. Indeed, there were a few snapped antlers lying nearby confirming this guess. But it wasn't the bones alone that was so shocking, nor was it the hideous smell that was drifting up Wendy's sensitive nostrils. It was the fact that every bone was blackened and charred like they were made of charcoal, burnt scabs of meat still clinging to them here and there. And the ribs were rent asunder as if something large had ripped its way into the poor thing to devour its insides.
"Oh my…" Charla's breath caught in her throat. "That… doesn't bode well…"
"What happened to it?" Happy trembled, clearly picturing something similar happening to him now. "What could have done that to it?"
"The entire thing is just… immolated…" Lily agreed, biting his lip and eyeing his surroundings warily, his hand going to the hilt of his sword. "But whatever the case, that thing was hunted and killed by some kind of giant predator. That much is clear."
Mavis looked dire. "We don't know anything about this world," she murmured softly. "But were I in our own world… I think I know what I would have guessed the attacker of this creature to be… and I think we should probably get out of here, quickly."
Wendy nodded in agreement and stepped backwards… but misplaced her foot and fell backwards with a sudden scream that echoed around the hills. She hit her shoulder hard on the ground and winced in pain, clenching her teeth to help bare it slightly.
"Wendy! Are you okay?" Charla asked worriedly.
"I'm… I'm fine," Wendy nodded as she sat up and rolled her shoulder slightly. "Nothing serious, nothing broken. I'm…"
She stopped, her eyes widening as she suddenly spotted something that none of them had noticed before. A short distance off to their right, nestled in something like a large basin carved out of the earth were several large black rocks. About ten of them all pressed up against each other and each one about the size of a basketball. The ground around them was singed and carbonised, just like that skeleton of the nearby deer.
But Wendy had a feeling in her guts… that those were not rocks at all.
"Um… are those what I think they are…?" she asked nervously.
"They look like… eggs…" Charla swallowed.
"We should leave," Mavis said immediately. "We should get out of here now before we…"
But she was suddenly drowned out by a sudden, massive roar that ripped through the air and seemed to wash over them like a tidal wave, battering their eardrums and practically rattling their insides. Wendy clapped her hands over her ears, but looked up suddenly with wide eyes as a large shadow fell across her.
A gigantic shape swept through the sky high above the cliffs, huge skeletal wings stretching wide on either side of it and four thick legs with viciously hooked claws on the end of its toes tucked in against its long, lizard-like body. Its long neck ends in a horned reptilian head with jaws that were almost akin to that of a crocodile crossed with an theropod dinosaur. It's tail was even longer and ended with a large, arrow shaped spike. Its underside was a deep, dark purple but the rest of it was pure black.
"ACNOLOGIA!" Happy screamed immediately. "HE'S BACK!"
"No!" Charla cried. "That's not Acnologia. Its a dragon, but it looks different and its not as big!"
"Let's get out of here!" Lily suggested. "If that thing's even half as strong as Acnologia we won't stand a chance against it!"
But Wendy pushed herself to her feet and waved her arms up towards the dragon, which was circling round in a great, sweeping arc and diving swiftly back towards them. "It's alright!" she shouted up to it. "We're friends! Please don't attack us!"
"Wendy, what are you…?" Charla gasped, but immediately threw herself upwards and activated her Aera, seizing Wendy by the back of her dress and hauling her out the way just as the dragon blasted a furious torrent of flames from between its jaws at the group, scorching a line of ash across the rocks as it swept towards them. The three Exceed scattered and Mavis levitated up and out the way, ducking her head as the dragon shot past her overhead and wheeled around for another pass.
"Wendy, are you okay?" Mavis called across to her.
"I… I'm fine…" Wendy gasped, a little shaken but turning back towards the dragon and screaming, "What did you do that for? We don't want to hurt you!"
"It must be a mother dragon protecting her eggs," Charla suggested.
"We don't want to hurt your eggs either," Wendy spread her arms wide. "Just stop!"
But the dragon ignored her and powered its great wings back towards her, the inside of its mouth glowing red hot as it tilted its body to shoot towards the young girl with jaws agape. Wendy and Charla both froze at the sight of the incoming jaws, frozen in momentary fear before suddenly Pantherlily crashed into them from the side in his battle form, scooping them into his arms and twisting out the way as the dragons jaws closed inches from his tail.
The dragon bellowed in anger and twisted its head around, pulsing a jet of fire at the giant Exceed but Lily folded his wings and dropped like a stone, dodging the blast. The dragon turned its head down to follow his progress and Lily flared his wings out again, levelling off inches from hitting the surface of the sea and shooting across it back towards the land, steam exploding up behind him when the dragons' flames connected with the water.
"Charla! Wendy! Lily!" Happy cried, flying towards them with a stick in his paws as if that would somehow help to defend them against the dragon, which was turning tightly in the air to come for them again. "Careful! It looks like this is a fire dragon, like Natsu!"
"STOP IT!" Wendy shouted. "PLEASE JUST STOP IT!"
"We have to go now!" Lily seized Happy in one hand and backed across the sky, the dragon closing in on them and blotting out the sun with its great wings, belching another jet of flame from between its teeth at them.
"Wendy!" Charla cried.
"Got it!" Wendy sucked in a great lungful of air and screamed, "TENRYUU NO HOUKOU!"
A crashing tornado of wind exploded out from Wendy's lips and met with the dragon's fire head on. The two attacks merged with one another and exploded outwards in a terrific fireball, Wendy's winds whipping the fire to greater heights than before but also pushing it back the way it had come towards the dragon. But the dragon's colossal frame whooshed out of the inferno with a furious snarl, mouth agape and teeth slicing down towards the group.
"Crap!" Lily cried and, with a heave of his arms, he flung Wendy, Charla and Happy to one side threw the air and took hold of his sword, swinging it with all his considerable might at the oncoming dragon. The blade glowed and grew in length until it was almost five times as tall as Pantherlily himself and just as wide, crashing into the side of the dragon's head and neck with a loud slicing crack.
This actually had an affect and the dragon screeched in surprise, thrown off course by the massive weapon and lurching back towards the cliffs. Lily threw himself out of the way just in time to avoid being smashed by one of its furiously flapping wings, but even as he tumbled in the jet stream the dragon created he noticed that his sword had sliced a shallow cut in the side of its neck through the thick scales. That was something of a relief. He'd hit Acnologia in the leg at least once during his attack to no effect whatsoever, which meant that at least this one was nowhere near as strong.
A slightly dizzy Charla had managed to catch both herself and Wendy, as Lily had guessed they would but still shook her head and griped, "A little warning next time."
Lily didn't answer, watching as the dragon flapped above the cliffs and landed with a heavy thumping noise on top of the rocks, turning its head round to hiss up at them angrily and rearing up onto its hind legs to spread its wings wide like an immense bat.
"Why won't you talk to us?!" Wendy shouted to it. "We don't want to fight you!"
"I don't believe it can talk to you, Wendy," Mavis rose up to hover next to her.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Wendy blinked. "All dragons can talk."
"In our universe perhaps. But we're in another world entirely. Look at this one. I can see no sentience in its eyes, no real intelligence in its demeanour. This isn't the same kind of dragon you know. I think this one is just an animal."
"That… can't be…" Wendy gasped in shock - the mere thought of an unintelligent dragon was nothing short of horrifying. But the dragon itself merely roared and lifted up into the air again, its tail lashing the air behind it as it twisted its head violently, breathing plumes of flame all over the place so a veritable wall of fire was pulsed up towards them.
"Let's get out of here!" Happy shouted as he and Charla dragged Wendy upwards and out of the way, Lily and Mavis close behind. "We've got no reason to stay here with a dragon like this!"
"Come on!" Lily agreed, shrinking his sword and diving back towards the land, the others in hot pursuit. "Stay low to the ground! It'll be harder for it to get to us down here!"
They other followed his advice, sweeping just overt the surface of the land but still hugging the coastline in their escape just in case they needed to duck out towards the ocean. The dragon swerved around and came after them nonetheless, pounding its wings as it blasted several fire jets madly down at them, but the nimble airborne cats weaved around to dodge them. Nevertheless the dragon was fast for its size and powered in low after them, landing briefly on the ground to blast another wave right after them.
"Wendy, I cannot defend you from this thing," Mavis called across to her. "I'm next to powerless in this form."
"Got it! We have to look after ourselves!" Wendy nodded, twisting around in Charla's grip and blasting out another vortex of wind from her mouth to the same effect as last time. "But why is it following us?"
"We must have made it angry!" Happy shouted.
"Hopefully it will turn back once we reach the edge of its territory!" Lily agreed.
Wendy sighed and spread her arms out. "Then let's get out of here. This should help. Oh swift wind that dashes through the heavens… VERNIER!"
The entire group, even Mavis, was suddenly surrounded by a greenish glow and they burst forwards, Wendy's Support Magic making their bodies lighter and raising their speed, leaving the dragon behind them. Wendy looked back over her shoulder sadly, watching the dragon trying to catch up with them and snarling through its reptilian jaws, blazing purple eyes burning after them.
"Sorry…" Wendy murmured to the animal before she turned around and focused on the path ahead.
Which is why she let out a scream when suddenly a second black dragon loomed over the rocks in front of them with a mighty snarl, spitting its own flaming blast forwards as they sped right into its path. Charla yelled and twisted wildly to the side while Lily grabbed both Happy and Mavis and ducked down, crashing to the ground and pushing them down as the searing heat washing over their backs, narrowly avoiding roasting them alive. Charla cried out as she tried to regain control of her flightpath after her violent motion but she and Wendy both hit the ground with a thump and went rolling across the rocky turf, Wendy narrowly avoiding plummeting off the edge of the cliff and into the water below.
"Wendy! Charla!" Lily shouted, but even as he rose up he was forced to clap a hand over his ears as the new dragon's terrific roar shook the clifftops. Lily looked up, expecting to see it looming over them and ready to fire down upon them at any moment, but no, the dragon was looking past them, jaws curled back in a vicious snarl.
Because the first dragon had not stopped chasing them and was bearing down on them with huge sweeps of its wings, before pulling up short and growling in return at the other dragon.
It seemed that the two of them were right on the edge of one another's territory and they both spread their wings and arched their necks, puffing themselves up to try and makes themselves look bigger in a display of strength. Lily immediately grabbed Happy and Mavis and tucked them under his arms to head over towards Wendy and Charla, who were both pushing themselves up. But then the first dragon spotted him and roared angrily, forgetting the confrontation with the second dragon and and barrelling towards him on all fours.
The second dragon evidently took that as a challenge and plunged forwards too, and the two dragons collided in a mighty scraping crash of scales against scales as the second locked its jaws around the first one's neck and heaved it backwards with a strangled squawk. The first dragon quickly forgot about its intended targets as it twisted its body around, locking its front feet onto the second's shoulder as and lurching it to the side, wrenching its neck out from between the other's teeth and batting its head aside with its own. The second dragon stumbled sideways towards Lily and the others, its tail smashing across like a giant bullwhip.
Lily kicked off from the ground and rose above the swinging tail but only succeeded in getting smashed in the back by a flailing wings and knocked forwards, rolling head over heels to try and regain his balance.
"Lily!" Wendy shouted as she pushed herself up.
"I'm fine!" Lily righted himself and grimaced slightly but turned around to face Wendy and head over towards her. "Come on! Let's get out of here while they fight it out!"
Wendy glanced back at the battling dragons and found her eyes fixed on the sheer ferocity going on before her. She couldn't tell which one of the two dragons was the nesting mother and which one was the newcomer anymore, but the two black dragons were viciously brawling it out. One of them was slashing at the others underbelly with its claws while it was having its wing mauled in the others jaws in turn.
But the one holding the wing twisted its head and brought the other dragon crashing onto its side, rearing up to deliver a fiery blast down on its floored opponent, only for said opponent to swing up its tail and smash it into its face, knocking it askew so the fiery blast torched the rocks nearby instead. The other scrambled up and lashed up with its jaws, snapping them around the jaws of the opponent and slamming them shut with a muffled screech of pain. The two of them thrashed their necks madly for several seconds before the one being bitten muscled itself forwards and started using its wings to beat and buffet the other one back, trying to force it towards the edge of a cliff.
"No…" Wendy whimpered with wide eyes. "This is… this is so wrong. Dragons shouldn't be fighting each other like this."
"This is a clash over territory," Lily insisted. "This sort of thing happens all the time in the wild."
"But dragons aren't wild… they can't be…"
Memories of her kindly and warm Dragon foster-mother, Grandine, came flooding back into Wendy's mind. Memories of how the great, white Sky Dragon had lovingly cared for her, nuzzled her when she was scared and told her stories just to see her smile. How she sheltered her from the rain with one of her own wings and took her for rides through the sunset sky. How she used to use the very tip of her tail to tickle Wendy's sides as delicately as if it was a human finger.
Everything that she was seeing now with the two dragons furiously clawing and beating at each other like mindless rabid dogs went against everything that she remembered Grandine to be.
And she couldn't stand it!
"STOP IT!" she screamed, throwing herself forwards and dashing across the rocks towards the two clashing goliaths.
"WENDY NO!" Charla cried.
"LEAVE THEM!" Happy agreed. "WE NEED TO GO!"
Lily cursed and wheeled around after her but was not fast enough to stop her from interrupting the battle. The two dragons were blasting fire at one another now, wheeling around each other in a maelstrom of whipping flames but they were both suddenly caught off guard as a whirling tornado smashed into them both from the side, accentuating their fires to wash over them both and staining their scales with soot as they both went stumbling sideways, roaring in pain as the winds battered against their scales.
When it subsided, the both of them turned their heads around to stare at the young girl before them, eyes pleading desperately at them, "STOP FIGHTING!" she yelled. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! IF YOU'RE NOT FRIENDS THEN JUST LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE! PLEASE JUST…"
But her cries evidently fell on deaf ears when one of the dragons drowned her out with a terrifying bellow and suddenly pounded across the rocks towards her, slamming the other one in the neck with its tail as it passed to send it sprawling.
Lily sprang over Wendy's head and brought his enlarged Musica Sword straight down from above, slamming the blade hard into the top of the dragon's head and smashing it down into the ground. "That's not going to help, Wendy!" he shouted. "Go! Now! I'll hold it off!"
The dragon powered its head up and threw the sword aside but Lily brought it under control by shortening it and rocketing up and past the dragon, drawing its attention away from Wendy and enlarging the sword again to bring it cleaving out towards the dragon's head. But the dragon ducked underneath it this time with a coiling of its neck and blasted a gout of fire up towards Lily. But the Exceed allowed the swinging motion of the giant sword to carry him sideways and out of the way, rolling over to deliver a mighty upwards sweep that carved a line into the dragons' chest on its softer underbelly.
A terrific screech of pain that came from the dragon as a result practically broke Wendy's heart right there. There really was nothing sentient about these creatures. They were purely beasts. And she watched in horror when the dragon seized Lily's sword in its jaws and wrenched its head to the side, dragging the big Exceed with it before releasing the blade and sending Lily crashing into the ground hard enough to splinter the rock.
"Lily!" she screamed, and immediately thrust her hands outwards as the dragon bore down on its prey, recasting the Vernier spell onto Lily, who shrunk his sword down and exploded out of the way as the dragons claws came crashing down where he had just been.
What was I doing? Wendy hissed to herself in her head. I just totally lost my head there!
She guessed that so soon after Acnologia coming across too more vicious dragons rather than a kindly one like Grandine cut her deeply. But she had to get her act together and they had to leave.
"WENDY, LOOK OUT!" Charla screamed and Wendy whipped around to find the second dragon was back in action and was looking up off to her side, flames practically leaking out of its jaws as it thundered towards her. Wendy gasped and dashed out of the way, but it turned out the dragon was not actually after her but was steamrolling towards the other dragon while Lily was keeping it distracted. But, as it thundered past her and Wendy turned to cry out a warning to Lily, the dragon's tail crashed into the rocks next to her and smashed them into rubble and knocked Wendy flying…
…right off the edge of the cliff.
"WENDY NO!" Charla was immediately in the air and diving after her, Happy right behind. But the roar of the oncoming dragon alerted the other to its imminent attack and it swung around to douse the air with fire. The attacking dragon lurched out of the way and the fire whooshed on past it, straight towards the two small Exceed.
"WATCH OUT!" Lily cried and cannoned towards them, the Vernier still in effect allowing him to race past the fire and seize the two other cats before they could be burnt to cinders, but even as he dodged aside the edge of the fire blast scorched his back and one of his wings, bringing a howl of pain from the big, black Exceed as he crashed to the ground nearby, his back smoking.
"Lily!" Happy gasped in shock.
"WENDY!" Charla scrambled out of his grip and flew to the edge of the cliff, staring down in terror…
But there was no sign of Wendy. Just a foaming ripple in the water where she had hit the surface and vanished beneath it. "No!" Charla gasped, tears appearing her eyes. "Wendy, no!"
Lily grunted his pain and pushed himself back up, ignoring his searing back as best he could and growling. "Come on! It's not over yet! We need to…"
And suddenly the area was disturbed once more when several loud cracks ripped through the air and all of sudden several humans appeared all around the area, seemingly out of thin air. The Exceeds all blinked, momentarily distracted as the humans rushed towards the battling dragons, whipping out little sticks of wood from their flowing black robes.
"Conjunctivitis Curses on three! Let's break them up then we Stun them one at a time!" one of the humans shouted and a few seconds later several pinkish blasts of energy lanced out of the tips of the little sticks and struck all around the heads of the two dragons, some hitting them in the eye. Both the dragons bellowed and pulled apart, shaking and tossing their heads and lifting their front feet to scratch at their eyes, which the others could see were starting to turn pink and swell shut.
"Alright, we did it!" shouted one of the men, before he suddenly noticed Pantherlily standing not far away from him, sword still held tightly in hand. The man stumbled backwards and almost fell over, screaming, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Lily raised his hands. "We're not…"
"GAH! IT CAN TALK! STUPEFY!" The man pointed his stick at Lily and fired a reddish beam of light at the giant cat. Compared to most magical things that Lily had had thrown at him it looked rather meagre, but he was not stupid enough to let himself get hit by it when he didn't know what it was. He dodged sideways and ducked down into a crouch as the panicked man fired another one moments later, wincing at the pain in his back as he raised his wings and hoisted himself into the air.
"HOI! WILL YOU JUST…!" Lily started but suddenly several of the other humans were flinging similar light jets up at him. Lily brought his sword into play and expanded its length and width, catching several light bolts on the flat of the blade but grunting as his back panged at him. "Damn it," he muttered. "I don't have time for this!"
"Leave them, Lily!" Happy shouted, as Charla had already dived off the cliff towards the sea below. "We're making a bad impression here anyway. Let's just find Wendy and try and talk to people another time!"
Lily nodded in agreement and shrunk his sword down, dodging another red blast as he followed Happy over the cliff, yelping a little as he switched back into his smaller body and the pain somehow became rather more condensed with it. But he bore it as the three Exceed dropped down towards the ocean, searching for any sign whatsoever of the young Dragon Slayer.
"Wendy! Wendy! Answer me please!" Charla begged. "WENDY!"
A fair distance below the water, Wendy was sinking, a thin trail of bubbles glubbing out of her mouth as she drifted down into the depths. Normally a fall from that height, even into water, would have killed most humans or at least broken most of their bones, but Wendy had managed to cast an Armour enhancement spell on herself before she hit the cold water, sparing her from that. Nevertheless, she had still been knocked unconscious by the impact with the water and was now helplessly drifting downwards, unaware that she was even drowning.
But there was something else that was.
A grey-skinned and clammy hand slowly reached out to grip her firmly by the arm and drag her sideways through the water and away. Away from the three cats who were now frantically looking for her.
But not before Mavis, who had dropped beneath the water and was moving through it as easily as if it were the air since she was weightless and did not need to breathe, spotted what was going on and hurried after her.