Seven years had passed in the blink of an eye. Yet Ara felt like they had just fought Acnologia, but that wasn't the case.
"Ara — Ara!" Ara's eyes widened as cold tiny hands wrapped around her arm. Zip. "Jet says that I've gotten stickier since being on Tenrou!" He cried, jumping onto the rickety wooden table.
Ara laughed which made Zip pout, "Just knock him out for a little bit — that is, if you can reach him before he speeds off."
"Ara!"
Ara smiled gently patting the frog on his cheek which brightened his expression. He sat down with a humph looking quizzically at her. "Are you sure you are alright Ara, You've been quiet since we got back to the guild?"
Ara played with a strand of her hair in thought. "I've just been trying to sort through things. 7 years gone in an instant. It makes my head hurt — and my heart speed in anxiety, or something along those lines. All our family left here waiting for us and all the pain they went through makes me —" She felt tears sting at her eyes and her throat squeeze shut.
Suddenly the door busted open and light flooded into the shabby hall. "So it's true, your back."
"Lamia Scale!"
"They helped us a lot when on the search for you!"
"Yuka, Jura!"
"Lyon!"
Almost instantly Lyon and Gray seemed to start bickering. Ara had seen this in a glimpse before but it truly was amusing.
"Ara, did you get shorter during the seven years?"
Ara gave a dull glare over her shoulder at the comment.
"She had to have — between her, Levy, and Wendy it's like competition on the shortest in the guild!"
"Hey!" All three shouted from different locations.
"It's alright guys, Just eat more fish and forget about it, that's what I do!" Happy laughed flying above the jeering members who were laughing and drinking till drunk enough to fall onto the floor.
"If anyone is the winner of the height competition I'm sure that would go to Gramps!" Natsu said with a toothy grin and fire coming out of his mouth, that flame was cut short though when said master crushed him down with a heavy fist clear from the bar.
"Don't listen to them Ara, their jealous because they're all old farts now." Zip giggled, smirking at the dejected expressions from said guild members after that comment.
"Awe, thanks Zip." She touched her cheek to his with a smile.
Ara stood from where she sat stretching her arms above her head. "We will need to get back to training right away to make up some of this time gap Zip."
"Ahh, but we just got time to relax after that dragon and dark wizards, at least give me some time for my book club with Levy and Lucy."
"Ha, well I guess Master Bonca did always say books are the fuel for the mind. Though I'm not sure if it'll boost your magic levels any. Unless you are Levy or Freed."
"Are you going out to train already Ara?" Lucy asked sitting down at the table she just stood from.
Ara nodded. "Need to keep up on it. My magic keeps buzzing it feels like it needs some release. Gotta go to a secluded area for that though. Plus, I'll have to start taking on some more jobs, or Zip and I will be out of house and home. 7 years of back rent took a hit on my savings."
Lucy drooped in depression. "Oh trust me, I'm scared to go to my apartment to see what that mess is gonna be."
Ara consoled her with a shoulder pat, she too didn't even know if her landlord would have held Zip and her apartment. It was a smaller apartment on the West side of Magnolia. Seven years ago it was a steal at only 600 jewels a month.
...
Ara had chosen to travel a bit into the woods for some training time, Zip on the other hand had gotten into a heated conversation with Lucy about a mystery novel series they had both read. Ara sometimes wished she had learned to read better so she understood what they were talking about.
Once in a clearing of the woods, Ara brought out the training mat she had borrowed from the guild. Once she had fully stretched she sat crisscross on the mat to begin a few forms of her training.
"Alright Ara," she monologued to herself, "just use your control."
Ara brought her hands together and started releasing her magic, right away there was a strong gravitational pull all around her. She scrunched her eyebrows in a concentration. Between her hands and all around black holes started to form and pull in small pieces of debris from the forest floor. With a a hand movement and magic spell she combined all the black holes into one large one, her eyes shining a bright purple with a gold magic circle forming under her.
"Black hole warp." Instantly the back hole shifted and warped the gravity around it to a crushing force.
Ara gritted her teeth, trying not to lose control of the black hole, her hands shook from the gravitational magic. Before Tenrou she had been in working on mastering controlling what the black holes would bring in and destroy.
It required concentration and magical control. A mage needed a strong core of magic ability to accomplish it.
Something she was still working on.
"Shit!" She cursed, using what she had left of her magic to close the black hole before it lost control. Ara fell forward, leaning on her hands and panting. Why did Master Bonca make it look so easy when they trained?
"Wow." Ara was startled by a clap.
"That was impressive, you've got immense magic power potential."
Two different voices. Ara turned around to the newcomers.
Lama Scale. They must have been traveling back to their guild. Ara quickly bowed in embarrassment on her knees. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to take up your traveling space." She smiled apologetically, quickly moving to let them through.
"No need to move. We can go around." Jura smiled politely.
The group moved to do so Ara watched from under her eyelashes. One by one down the dirt path of the woods. Jura, Sherrie, Yuka, Toby, and Lyon.
She thought back to the previous comments. Why did she always get bashful under praises — She was sure they were just being nice.
Ara looked up through the trees once she figured herself alone, taking in the birds and flying leaves. She wondered if her magic had disrupted these movements. Gently she lifted her hand and used a bit of gravitational magic to see if anything would move more. Purple and gold glistened then faded into the sunlight.
