A murmur of voices surrounded me and when I tried to respond I found I could not even open my eyes. My head felt like lead and my limbs were ghosts all around me, I felt like throwing up. 'Where am I?' I think groggily. The voices around me recede and a calm quiet settles in, the weight in my head sloshes around causing a sensation of vertigo. 'I'm going to puke…' I think forlornly. A cool hand presses down on my heavy head and a strange lightness fills me. I hum in appreciation for the contact and let the lightness fill me up until I could finally manage to crack my eyes open. It was gradual and the sudden light made my eyes burn, but I opened them nonetheless.
"Thank goodness," a small sweet voice says filling my ears. "You're finally awake." I slump my head in the direction of the voice and come face to face with a girl. She was small probably about my age with dark blue hair and a concerned look on her features. I try to speak but my throat is so dry and I can't seem to remember how to use my lips. "It's okay you shouldn't speak just yet. My name is Wendy Marvel and you're safe now," she smiles down at me. I try to smile back but something about her words makes my skin crawl.
'Something's not right…where am I?' I feel panic swell in the throat and I choke on my hysteria.
"Wait! Wait! Please stop moving!" the girl holds my arms down, I hadn't even realized I could move them. "You're going to rip out the IV! You are dehydrated and need fluids desperately! Please just…just trust me," her big eyes shine down at me with honesty and terror. The same terror that I'm sure is mirrored in my own eyes. I finally had control over my limbs and I stopped fighting her and settled back against the bed. I'm just so tired and confused. "You must be so lost right now," she murmurs softly. "I'm going to try my very best to help you. My friends and I won't stop until we find out who did this to you." Her eyes held a determination I haven't seen in a long time.
'She reminds me of someone…someone important,' my mind reels trying to regain its lost components. "Wh—where am—ugh…" my voice cracks and breaks off.
"You can speak!" she gasps. Even though I still feel like throwing up I manage to roll my eyes at her. "Well don't give me that attitude mister! How was I supposed to know! The last one…" her voice trailed off and her eyes took on a glassy quality. I felt that panic surge through my veins again as I try to correct whatever blunder I made. I moved my hand to reach out to her, but it was so heavy and I am so tired I couldn't do more that twitch my figures. Her eyes are sharp though and she moves to lace her fingers through mine. "Thank you," she smiles sweetly. "I know you must be so scared, but I promise I'll explain everything to you later. It's late now and you need rest to heal your body and mind. I'll give you some pain killers," she turns to fiddle with something behind her. Almost immediately I feel a hazy quality flood my system and I fight against the sleep that tries to drag me under.
"Shh…sleep for now," her voice is far away and dreamlike as my subconscious takes over and I slip back into the darkness. Only this time it's soft and warm and not the cold and oppressive darkness I'm used to. "Goodnight."
"So, what's the verdict?" Gajeel asks when I come out of the bedroom.
"Stable," I reply sleepily. I rub my eyes and yawn as I stretch out my back, we all hear a very satisfying series of popping noises.
"Did he ever wake up?" Levy questions.
I sigh before turning back to look at the closed door, "yeah he did."
"And?" Levy and Lucy prompted. Both girls and Gajeel watched me closely which made me shift nervously. I am so tired and really don't feel like answering medical inquires right now.
"And nothing he didn't say anything really coherent. What's going on with the search team?" I defect.
"Mhm…" Levy muses sadly. "The last transmission Ezra sent over the lacrima wasn't promising. They still can't seem to figure out which way the boy came from. Natsu and Laxus couldn't pick up his scent anywhere—how did you find him Wendy?" she gave me a curious gaze. I yawn once again before walking over to the kitchen where Lucy was warming up something to eat.
"What is that Lucy-san?" I take a deep breath and practically purr when the herbs hit my nose. Levy makes an annoyed sound behind me but thankfully Gajeel cajoles her into leaving me alone.
"Just some chicken. Do you want potatoes too?" Lucy asks while she continued to heat the chicken in a pan over the stove.
"Thanks Lucy-san that sounds wonderful!" I chirp. She smiles down at me with warmth, but I could still see the worry etched into her furrowed brow when she turned back to the food. I move stand under her arms as she worked on the food, she gave a contented sigh before resting her head on mine. She continues to work around me as she grabs the potatoes and throws them in the pan as well. They sizzle and pop and give off an earthy smell which makes my stomach growl loudly. A blush crept across my cheeks as Lucy laughed lightly shaking the both of us. I heard Gajeel laugh aloud and I even heard Levy giggle at my expense, but I was glad she wasn't grouchy with me anymore.
"Alright let's eat," Lucy sing-songs. Gajeel and Levy come over and sit down as Lucy and I get the table set up. We all dig in and eat in a relative silence for a while, Mandy and her grandfather had gone to the town to make sure our little adventure into the woods wasn't being spread around town. So far no one has come poking around so they must be doing a good job of it.
"I couldn't smell him," I say abruptly.
"Huh?" they all turned to stare at me.
"I couldn't smell him…not really," I mutter.
"Then how did you find him kiddo?" Gajeel questions.
"It was…a shift in the winds," I reply lamely. "I-I could feel something was wrong and then I heard him drop more than anything. A soft 'thump' sound that seemed unnatural in that eerie stillness."
"Well whatever you did Wendy you saved his life because of it," Lucy reassures me with a pat on my hand.
"You should probably get some sleep kiddo," Gajeel says as he picks up my plate along with his own. Levy stands up and stretched out her arms before grabbing her own plate and moving to the sink.
"No Lu-chan me and Gajeel can clean since you cooked," Levy smiled at her friend. "And you," she whirls around to face me, "go to bed missy. You've worked hard enough today."
"I'm gonna call them back," Lucy interjects before patting my head and moving to the living room. I watch and Gajeel and Levy get to work on cleaning the kitchen, Levy hums a little tune and I watch as Gajeel sways to the beat. Gradually they move closer together until Gajeel bumped her with his hip and she momentarily stopped humming to laugh lightly. Without seeing any reason to stay in the kitchen and I wasn't in the mood to listen to Lucy murmur happily into the lacrima. So, I turned back down the hall until I was pushing open the makeshift medic room door again and went to snuggle with the cats on the pile of blankets I put out for them earlier.
Lily mumbled something in his sleep but rolled over so I could squish in between him and Charla. Happy managed to shuffle over and curl around my head before sighing contently. Charla curled into my side and fisted my shirt in her tiny paw. However, I couldn't sleep and so I stayed up listening to the quiet murmurs from the sleeping boy and the return of the rest of my friends. Once everyone was back in the house and a quiet settled over everything my restless mind finally stopped and sleep overcame me.
"She'll need more rest than that," a soft voice whispers at the back of my subconscious.
"But the boy—" another voice interjected, but was promptly cut off.
"Will be fine."
"She doesn't look very well does she?" another soft voice murmurs and a soft stroke of my hair is followed shortly after.
"Come on Luce let's get going," this time I recognized the voice as Natsu's and began to stir.
The first voice sighed in frustration, "see you've woken her up!" I realized then that it was Ezra that spoke.
"What's goin' on?" I ask sleepily while rubbing at my eyes.
I look up and see Lucy and Ezra standing over me while Natsu and Gray stand right by the door. "We're heading out to continue our search for where the boy came from," Ezra says with a pointed glare at the boys. "We were going to let you sleep. You used too much magic and energy yesterday."
I shuffled to my feet quickly and regretted it instantly when my head became light and all the blood rushed into my feet. With my feet feeling like lead and my head spinning in circles I attempted to walk to the door. Gray grabs my arm before I fall on my face like the mess I am. I feel a blush heat my cheeks all the way down to my throat as I mumble a thank you to him. "See? You need to stay here and rest," Ezra pushes.
"But…but I'm the only one who was able to track in the forest," I protest.
"And who is gonna protect him?" Laxus walks into the room at that moment. "He's in worse shape than you teeny tiny. He needs you, we'll figure something out."
I turn my gaze to the boy on the bed, he's brow is knitted tightly as he fidgets in his sleep. A sheen of sweat covers his whole body from the looks of it and his eyes are shifting rapidly underneath his lids. Overall he looks terrible and a pang of guilt surges through me, of course Lucy and Levy have some experience in healing magic but they're not me. I shift my gaze back to Laxus and he is smiling at me with that stupid grin that for some reason Mahari-san really loves. I just think he looks like a showoff with that smile, but at least he is kind. "So what do you say tiny?" he asks.
I took a deep breath to relax my muscles, "okay. Okay I'll stay here, but call me alright?" I say. I glance at everyone in the room before Natsu comes over and slings his arm across my shoulders.
"Don't worry Wendy!" he says brightly. "Today is the day we're gonna find whoever is behind this!" he laughed fully before pulling me into a tight hug. "Just take care of him okay?" he whispered quietly into my hair. I stifle a giggle at his antics before hugging him back.
"Okay Natsu-san," I relpy.
"Let's get going guys!" Levy says from down the hall. "The sun is coming up now."
"Move it Salamander! You're burning daylight!" Gajeel growls.
"Shut up metal head! Levy just said the sun isn't even up yet!" he growls back.
"Let's move," Ezra commander and everyone jumps into action. Laxus ruffles my hair before walking out behind Gray who threw me a quick smirk. Natsu planted a quick kiss to the top of my head before grabbing Lucy's hand.
"We'll see you really soon okay Wendy?" she smiled at me.
"Okay Lucy-san," I answer with a smile of my own. I hear them gathering their gear before opening the back door and heading out into the forest.
"Oi Wendy," I turn around startled at the deep voice.
"Pantherlily!" I exclaim. "You frightened me! What are you still doing here?" I question.
"Happy and Charla went with the group."
"Huh? Charla left me?" I reply glumly.
"She really didn't want to, but Ezra made a good point thinking that her ability to see the future could potentially lead them to the hideout."
"Oh…" I sigh. 'That is a good point. But still…'
"I hope that I am a suitable substitute," he quirks an eyebrow at me. His look makes me flush as I realize that I had hurt his feelings.
"I'm sorry Pantherlily! You know you're my friend too, right?" I ask hastily. He only laughs.
"I know Wendy I'm not givin' ya a hard time. I'll go see what's in the kitchen if you wanna look after the boy," he didn't give me a chance to respond before he walked out the door. Once I hear Lily rummaging through the kitchen I turn back to the mysterious boy.
"Just what happened to you?" I muse as I walk over and check his vitals.
"This is so boring!" Natsu complains from the front of the pack.
"Aye…" Happy mumbles miserably over him. I sigh in frustration as my boot strap digs into my calf causing me to stop and itch at it.
"Tell me again why we left Laxus back where we found the boy yesterday?" he grumbled. "At least with him here I could have spared with him."
"He's trying to track from whatever scent is leftover Natsu," Ezra chided him. "And no you could not have spared with him." Those two share a heated glare before Gray knocked Natsu in the back of the head. I wasn't really paying attention to the conversation, too focused on my leg.
"Are you okay Lu-chan?" Levy asks while turning around to walk back towards me. We hear Gajeel complain about women issues as he slows his pace ahead of us. Ezra and Gray turn to gaze at us, but otherwise do not reduce their speed.
"No," I admit to my best friend. "I'm worried about Wendy—and that boy."
"Don't worry," she chirped, but I could see the stress in the corners of her eyes. "It's gonna be okay."
"What else have you learned from those scrolls and book Levy-chan?" I ask to distract myself from my aching calf. We both started walking again and Gajeel grunted in approval as he started walking faster. Levy giggled at his antics before sighing and shifting her gaze around us.
"Not much I'm afraid," she admitted in frustration. "All we really have is that spell that got Mahari-san all agitated. Younger than fifteen, we know it can either be male or female, the white hair and red eyes has been confirmed…and so has the blood poisoning." She gulped, remembering the hastily done procedure Wendy did just yesterday. The grotesque imagery reentered my mind and made me blanch.
"Y-yeah…" I say around the rising lump in my throat. "Yeah that was um…good confirmation of the blood poison."
"Oi! Flame brain what the hell are you doing?!" we both snap our head up in the direction that Gray was yelling from. We both watched in horror as Natsu scaled the side of one of the taller trees in the forest.
"Natsu! What the hell are you doing?!" I scream at him.
"Be quiet Luce! I think I hear something!" he waves dismissively at me. I glare at the back of his head as he continues to climb higher. "The air is cleaner up here! I can smell farther!" he observes. We watch as he twists and turns sniffing the air. I yank on Happy's tail to bring him down to my level.
"Ouch! Lucy that hurt!" he howled in pain.
"Be quiet cat!" I hiss. "Go up there and make sure he doesn't fall off that tree!" I throw him back up and he grumbles the whole way.
"Such a baby," Charla sighs next to me. The white cat watches at the blue dot moves farther up and away from us.
"Any luck Charla?" Levy inquires. The cat shakes her head in dismay before floating up to our head height.
"No. This forest is strange to say the least," she remarks. "The air is so pungent and sickening. It's hard to focus really."
"What would happen if you flew up to Natsu too?" Gray interjects, apparently listening in on our conversation. Levy and I watch the exceed think about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"Anything is worth a shot at this point I suppose," she agrees before taking off up and over the trees.
"I hope this works…" Gajeel mumbles as he grabs on to the nearest tree and hauls himself up.
"Gajeel!" Levy squawks in surprise. "What the hell are you doing?!" there was an anger hidden under that worried tone and it made me edge a little closer to Ezra and Gray.
"Anything?" I holler up at Natsu. We are met with nothing but silence as the four of us stare up at the trees. Both men and cats have disappeared in the thickest part of the trees, leaving that eerie silence in its wake. I was just about to shout up at him again when a white ball of fur fell out of the sky and smacked me square in the face. "Ack!"
"Lu-chan!"
"Luce!" Natsu hollers down at me. I was still in shock as I picked the white cat up and held her in my arms. I watched as her eyes blinked slowly and stared at nothing in particular, it took me almost a full minute before I realized she was in the middle of a vision. I could barely hear the conversations going on around me as I continued to stare transfixed at Charla. I faintly hear Natsu yell at Gajeel to go confirm something while Ezra was shouting something about a tree falling.
"Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!" Ezra finally slapped me across the face and I jolted out of my trance.
"Wh-what happened?" I say startled as I slowly blink. I see that the tree Natsu climbed up was missing a few of its bigger branches, one of which was currently being pulled off of Levy. "Levy-chan!" I yelp and almost drop Charla.
"I got her," Gajeel grunts as he lifts the branch and pulls her out. Gray has Ezra slung over his shoulder with blood dripping down her face.
"Is Charla okay?" Ezra gasps between pants.
"Ezra…" I murmur quietly. Before I could say anymore Charla started to squirm in my arms. "Charla?" I say in surprise.
"Luce," Natsu says quietly next to me. I jump in surprise and let out a startled squeak. "We got something," there was that telltale spark of mischief in his eyes that meant the adventure was just about to start.