February X785
Things had been busy for the last few months. Everything had changed and yet, nothing at all. The shift of Fairy Tail accepting all kinds of different jobs instead of favoring combat ones had been tough on everyone. We weren't in any position to refuse work.
Jude Heartfilia has arrived in the city. Morgana's report made a pang of guilt shoot through me.
Right...When we informed the other family members outside the guild what happened, he got excluded because Lucy got herself emancipated when she got her wizardry license.
"Kinana, come on. We have some explaining to do."
-vVv-
I met the man on the road. He looked a bit better than the last time I had seen him through Lucy's memories. Better dressed and well fed. He spotted the guild sign I was carrying and approached.
"You are a Fairy Tail member, I presume?" I nodded, looking up at the man, Kinana curled around my shoulders in her usual position.
"I am. My name is Fae, this is Kinana. You're Lucy's father." He had the gravity to not look too bothered by my casually naming him without an introduction. And with the large snake. Locals were used to her by now, but strangers still took a look or three to comprehend what they were seeing.
"You have the advantage of me."
Oh buddy, you have no idea.
"Comes with the territory I'm afraid. Please follow me."
I took Jude to a park where we could have a modicum of privacy. I kept up a small bit of small talk just to be polite until we got there.
"I don't want to be rude, Fae, but I came to see my daughter." Yeah, I thought you might. I'd never needed to tell anyone this. But I was not looking forward to it. Jude spoke on, earnest sincerity in his voice.
"I had hoped we parted on better terms than our previous encounter. But she hasn't been answering my letters. Is she still upset with me?" The anxiety of a worried parent rang in my ears as I gathered my wits.
"Last I spoke to her, she was looking forward to repairing your relationship. But something has happened." Jude's worry rocketed to new levels.
"Is she alright?"
"Depends on your definition. You might want to sit down, Mr. Heartfilia. This will take a bit of explaining." Kinana regarded him curiously as he did so, actually it was more like he collapsed, face ashen with worry and stress.
"Most guilds have different levels of wizards, or qualifications that need to be met in order to take on jobs of greater difficulty and equivalent pay. These tests in Fairy Tail take place on a private island."
"Lucy was taking the test?" he asked faintly.
"No. It's a partnered test, one of the candidates asked for her assistance. The island was attacked."
"Is Lucy still alive?!" The man's voice was rising in volume and stress, tears shining in his eyes and his fists clenched tightly. "Where is my daughter?!"
"She is alive, still on Tenrou Island. The entire space has been encased in a protective barrier in order to deflect the last attack. All those inside are in stasis. It will take some years before the spell runs its course and we can retrieve them."
Jude's shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Years...?" He repeated brokenly. "I can't see my little girl...for years?" Kinana spoke then, hissing and the words translating automatically.
:She will be safe from any who would harm her in all that time:
"And...I'm glad to...Oh gods, Lucy..." The man's head dropped into his hands and he started to cry. I barely held back my own tears. Even though some months had passed, we were all still reeling from the loss of our friends. My hand found the probationary token on my sash and gripped it tightly, the guild emblem pressing into my palm, the perpetually cool glass grounding me from bursting into tears myself.
I didn't hear all of what Jude said as he wept, but Morgana did.
He lost his wife to her magic, and now his daughter is gone for the same reason. Some men might have begrudged magic and wizards. But there was a reason Jude had never tried to forbid his daughter from practicing her gifts. Layla Heartfilia had been inseparable from her identity and status as the contract holder of Celestial Spirits. It had made her happy. And sharing that with Lucy had brought her more joy than anything in the world. That in turn had brought Jude a second hand happiness. After Layla died, Lucy only had magic to hold onto her mother's memory. And as she held on, so did Jude, in a cold, distant part of his heart that he held back from reaching the surface, buried under duty and responsibility to the business he had built to give his wife and child the life he wanted for them.
And he had seen how Lucy had grown to someone strong, independent and fearless when she embraced her choice to be a working wizard. And he was proud of her for it.
Reddened eyes lifted to meet my gaze.
"Is she in pain?" I would have lied to the grieving father and said no in that instance. But I didn't have to. My study and meditation had let me gain a lot of insight into Fairy Sphere.
"The spell she is currently under is one of the three Great Fairy spells, created by our guilds founder. Fairy Sphere is a perfect defense. When we get them, it will be like waking up from a good night's rest."
"Just years of it."
"Yeah, that too."
"Can I see...where she is?" I shook my head.
"Part of the defense is that no one outside the spell can see where they are being held. We're searching all the same, but we haven't found so much as a trace of the island."
So I talked Jude Heartfilia through his grief and sadness. He told me about how proud he and his wife had been when they found their baby was a daughter to carry on Layla's name and legacy. He described Lucy's toddler and young childhood years. He cried over how much she looked like her mother and behaved with the same zeal, but her own brand of grace. And throughout it all, I listened and let the man grieve.
My world was not the only one that had been shattered by this attack.
March X785
After my initial positive contact with Jude Heartfilia, he kept in touch. In part because he wanted to be the first in line if any news about the Tenrou group came up. And in part, I read, because he felt rather guilty about the trouble he had caused for us. Arranging for someone to bring his daughter home was not supposed to blow out of proportion into a guild war.
When a job came listing him as the employer, no one really wanted to take it. Simon smacked down on that sentiment right away.
"What happened in the past is over and done. He comes as a client with work, asking for us specifically."
"That bastard tried to kidnap Lucy, and you want us to work for him and steal someone else's kid?" Macao demanded angrily. Simon leveled his gaze at him.
"Macao."
You are looking at someone who was once complicit in kidnapping and abduction and I'm your guild master. People can change. He didn't need to say anything out loud or via telepathy. Some people had brought up his suitability to be guild master by citing his past, but nothing ever seemed to stick or bother Simon. Macao exhaled sharply.
"Fine."
"What kind of job is he offering?" I asked.
"Escort." Simon replied, handing me the flier. "He's visiting some business associates to the west and wants a few wizards to accompany him. Two or three."
"Body guards?"
I suppose his net value has been going up again to where it used to be. He might have been bankrupt for a few months there, but he's a smart guy and a really hard working one.
"Something to that effect. I won't force anyone to take the job, but I do ask that you try and put aside the past for this man."
"He made up with Lucy." I said, getting everyone's attention. "When she went and took down that dark guild by herself? She thought they had taken him hostage. She didn't ask anyone for help, probably because she didn't think people would be willing to go save him." Guilt flashed across Macao's face and Romeo looked between me and his dad.
"Fae, are you gonna go work for this guy?" That was the question. I wanted to. He had no one in the world to get him through this second round of grief and he likely felt an aversion to burying himself in work like he had after his wife's death because of how it had cost him his relationship with his daughter.
"I will." I said, straightening my shoulders. Kinana slithered beside me.
:I shall accompany her:
"Fae, by yourself?" Macao looked doubtful and even more conflicted now. I looked at the single father with a crooked smile.
"I've already got rapport with him when he came looking for Lucy a few weeks ago. If you want to come along, Macao, I won't say no. But you have to be a professional and not glower at him just because you're salty over the thing with Phantom Lord. It's like Simon said, it's over and done with and he really regrets what happened." If only because it had made Lucy finally lose her temper with him.
"...I don't like it."
"You don't have to like it. You just need to do it. It'll be better if my partner for this is an adult anyway. Most bandits won't look at me as any kind of deterrent."
:I would enjoy frightening them away: Kinana offered with a simile of a grin. We had been working on perfecting Nightshade a la Pokemon as a spell for her and she was getting to the point where she could do it without my command. She took a predator's glee at terrifying her prey before she snatched them with a python's coil. (I wasn't sure if she could tone down her venom to a simple paralytic to enable her to bite casually in combat, but I wasn't about to experiment with lives in the balance.)
"We'll do it Simon. Send a reply." Macao glanced at me sidelong. "Fae, you know everything you'll need?"
"Got it covered." I said confidently, mentally packing my bag with everything I might need. I'd also need to let Kagura and Wendy know that I would be out of town so my roommates wouldn't get too worried. "When do we leave?"
-vVv-
The trip there only took a single morning via the train and a few hours of road travel. Macao was a consummate professional in terms of his interactions with Jude, I had no complaints though I did occasionally pinch him when Morgana warned me his temper was starting to get a little out of hand.
The manor we arrived at was massive to my eyes. And the number of staff that was moving around in well trained order gave the appearance of lots of money.
Not just lots of money. Old money. There were a number of distinguished looking servants who had aged past the point where they were kept for manual tasks in charge of directing people. Our small group was greeted with due politeness, shown inside, etc, etc.
With the flood of new people around me, there was a corresponding surge of incoming information.
This is a birthday party. The child in question is turning 10 today.
The girl wore an ornate yellow dress, like she was defying the still present winter chill through sheer force of will alone. And even as I set foot on the main carpet in the hall, I felt sick.
Tara is spoiled and acts like it.
It wasn't anything as horrible as what I'd seen before. It was just petty self centeredness encouraged by doting parents. The girl had bright red hair and green eyes and had been told much too often how pretty she was and the opportunities it would afford her. She didn't think twice about smacking at servants if they didn't do what she wanted or throwing screaming tantrums if she was denied anything.
She is a passionate admirer of Erza Scarlet.
Oh this is gonna suck so bad if she finds out Fairy Tail is here.
If you went on appearance alone, to someone who was unfamiliar with Erza, Delia's outfit would be a decent approximation. But her sneer never seemed to fade from her face and there was not a weapon in sight. A few other appointed babysitters were stationed around the room and shifted when Macau and I entered the premises.
They didn't think that Fairy Tail wizards would be here.
Why would it give them such pause?
I took a closer look at their motivations and history even as I shadowed Macau to the side of the room.
Apparently this was a subtle flexing contest between resources and various other channels. The body guards were a mixed bag of professional and private men, but only a handful of them had any magic of which to speak. And while Macau was a recognized and known member of Fairy Tail...I saw more eyes go wide than I thought upon seeing me.
By bringing Fairy Tail wizards to this gathering, Jude is both showing support of us as reliable to this social class, and that he has ties with a notable guild. Could also be that he either expects trouble or has had some before and is thus coming prepared.
This was all done without any words said and under the cover of excited children chattering. The large room was divided into two sections, child and adult.
"Macao?" He had more experience in this regard than I did.
"Stay with the kids. Eyes on exits and identities." He told me in an undertone. I nodded, stepping to the side and consciously trying to blend into the wallpaper. As much as I could at least. I was here as an escort and potential guard. That meant I was not supposed to attract a lot of attention now that we had arrived at our destination. Subtle generally wasn't something that Fairy Tail did very well, but when the occasion called for it, we could manage it well enough.
Ok, checking the first trope: Any dastardly plots or schemes to take someone hostage?
Preliminary scan shows a negative. Commencing in depth search.
Thanks Morgana.
The kids were getting organized into a game of Light Dart, a magical target that moved through the air and kids had wands that emitted beams of light in their hands to try and catch the target in their rays. Kinana was shrunk to her tiny stealth form and hidden inside my shirt collar.
"Fairy Tail seriously sent a kid?" I looked up at the wizard in question who had spoken. He wasn't looming threateningly, but rather looked more genuinely concerned and confused.
"How'd you know I'm Fairy Tail?"
"I've met Macao on the job before. I just assumed." He offered his hand. "Clennan, Silver Roads Guild."
A guild whose members have a mercenary like organization and a nomadic pattern of patrols. They primarily run scouting and escort missions and work closely with the Rune Knights.
"Faerun, Fairy Tail probationary member." A small purple head poked out of my jacket. "And this is Kinana."
"Nice to meet you two."
Clennan has children, one of whom is your age. He is staying close by to assuage his paternal instincts.
The guards in the room were stationed in pairs and some were conversing quietly as the kids game progressed. The target was eventually set to move faster and faster to up the challenge level as kids progressed to another round. I noticed that no matter how many points some kids had, the birthday girl always progressed to the next round. No one else seemed to notice except a few disgruntled children, and her enjoyment of the game was contagious enough to make a lot forgive the bias.
Eventually, the Light Dart target was moving so quickly and erratically around the room, it was taking considerable hand eye coordination to nail it with the brief flashes of light that surged from the kids wands. The air was thick with flashing lights and bright colors and-
One of the children is about to have a panic attack.
I moved abruptly away from the wall where I had been. The child in question was a small girl with strawberry blond hair and cheeks thick with freckles. She had long since been eliminated from the game, but had stayed to watch all the same. Her eyes were wide and starting to go unfocused.
"Hey, can you hear me?" She blinked and looked at me, still teetering on the verge of the precipice. "Do you want to leave?" She nodded numbly, swallowing and putting her trembling hand in mine. Instantly, the route to a small room came to my eye. It was simply furnished, but looked cozy and comfortable.
I looked up at one servant who hurried over, kneeling quickly.
"Miss Kellye, are you alright?" The girl, who I read was four years old, shook her head, lip starting to tremble.
"Annie." She whispered. "I wan' Annie." The servant flinched and looked at me with some distress. I squeezed Kellye' hand gently and took a quick peek.
Annie Carz was the family's nanny. Tara threw a tantrum about her being scolded by her and got her fired three weeks ago.
"Kellye, I don't know where Annie is. But I can take you to that room." I said in a soft tone. "It'll be quiet, you can rest and tell me about Annie. Ok?" She sniffled and nodded, clearly fighting back tears.
"I can take her, Miss Wizard."
"It's no problem. I'll be back once she's resting."
And if I put on my headband for the purpose of making and sending a clone to return to her post in my place what about it? What else were Shadow Clones for?
-vVv-
The bed was still made up with blankets and a single pillow and Kellye quickly buried herself in the bedding to cry.
She doesn't want to get in trouble for ruining her sisters birthday by crying.
Oh the hated double standard. The one kid can get away with murder by virtue of age or attitude and the other can't even crack a smile without it being frowned on. I did wonder why the family was so indulgent of Tara's bratty behavior, but normal expressions of emotions were so restricted as to make Kellye want to retreat to her old nurses bedroom in order to cry in peace. For that matter, why had she wanted to come to this room instead of her own?
When the quiet sobs had stopped, shy green eyes peeked out from under the blanket at me.
"You're still here." She observed. I smiled and nodded.
"Yep. I didn't want to leave you all by yourself, so I did a trick so everyone thinks I'm back watching the party." She came a little further out of the cocoon she had wrapped herself in.
"A magic trick?"
"Yep. You wanna see?" Her eyes brightened a little and she nodded. I formed the cross seal as I sat on the floor.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu." In a small puff of smoke, my doppleganger appeared beside me. Kellye's eyes got wide with excitement. The clone and I turned and look at each other in unison, then played a little bit of a mirror act with each other. As though we were trying to catch the other not reflecting our every move. I was pretty sure my clone was making faces at my back and our audience while my back was turned judging by the smothered giggles.
Then I reached out and poked the clone's stomach while my back. She squealed and fell back with a laugh, disappearing in another puff of smoke.
"She went away!" Kellye said in surprise, sitting up, the blanket falling completely from her shoulders.
"She's fine. She's my clone, so she's back in here with the rest of my magic now." I explained, tapping the side of my head.
"Magic is cool..." Kellye breathed. "It's like you've always got a best friend with you all the time!" I nodded sagely.
"Yeah there is that...but I've already got a friend with me." I glanced around a little shiftily before eyeing Kellye with mock gravity. "Can you keep a secret?" She nodded, eyes shining with energy, her tears all but forgotten. "Do you proooomise?" I drew the word out, gently winding her up.
"Uh huh! Uh huh!"
I held out my hand and beckoned.
"You gotta be brave then. Some people think my friend can be a little scary. Are you ok with that?" She nodded, chin firm with her bitten lip and face set with resolve as she reached out and laid her hand over mine.
Kinana took her cue beautifully, sliding out from my sleeve and onto the girl's arm. Kellye's eyes widened proportionately. The small purple snake looped around our joined hands and then lifted her head to gaze into the wide eyed face of a fascinated little girl.
:Hello small human:
"It talks..." Her face lit with delight. "I never saw a snake that could talk before!"
:I am very special: Kinana agreed with a little bob of her head. She then reached out her neck, maybe lengthening it a tiny bit and pressed her nose to Kellye's before withdrawing back to my jacket. :I am glad you are happy now, small human:
She giggled, using her finger to boop Kinana's nose in answer. Casually confident and fearless with a typical child's courage.
As if I'm so different. I thought with a faint smile, thinking back to my various mishaps and misadventures involving magic. Such as the cathedral incident...Which I almost wanted to repeat now. Just to remember how much Freed had scolded me, and Mira right after, followed by Erza and Master. Natsu and Gray had just given me high fives and bought me cookies while no one was looking. (Who is the real guiding influence in my life? Take a guess.)
"Your friend is nice, Miss Wizard." Kellye told me, legs drawing up to her chest.
"You can call me Fae, Kellye." Morgana was keeping tabs on the clone in the main room and thus far there were no problems. Heck, not even Clennan could tell she was a substitute and he was standing right next to her and talking to her.
"I wish I had friends like you, Miss Fae."
...
I guess the thing about kids saying the exact wrong thing at the right time was a matter of perspective.
Oh for crying out loud-Actually, scratch that thought. No crying please. She just calmed down and got happy again, I don't want to trigger her.
"Don't you have friends Kellye?" She shook her head sadly, picking at a small hole in the blanket.
"Tara takes'em so they don't want to play with me anymore."
Kellye has always been sensitive to light, loud noise and lots of people. Tara loves things that are bright and flashy and prefers to arrange them to suit her needs, to the exclusion of her sister. She originally wanted to have the wizards that the adults brought put on a show for her, but her parents talked her down.
Huh, right now, it's just kids being kids, but if the trait sticks around then Tara is well on her way to becoming a first rate...witch.
Isolating your sister and deliberately playing games that made her want to leave? Yeah, not cool. Suddenly my private magic show for the younger daughter seemed like a much better idea than simply as a means of cheering her up.
I wanted to simply tell the girl that I was her friend and have that be that. But I couldn't be here all the time. She needed something concrete, something that could stay with her.
My eyes fell to the blanket.
Annie's old blanket. I reached out and touched it. The surge of affection and love shot through me. Annie had practically raised Kellye once the previous family nanny had retired due to not being able to keep up with Tara's bratty demands. Annie's affection for the girl was strong and still present in a room that had largely been untouched by everyone except the girl before me.
"Hey...Kellye. If you let me have that blanket...I'll make you a friend." Her hands briefly clutched the old, worn material.
"Annie made me a doll."
Tara took it and ruined it.
Ok, no further development necessary, she already is a witch!
"Can I make you one too? A very special one."
Demonstrating the cautious trust she had in me, Kellye got off the blanket and handed it to me. The many stories of tender moments and the love of a surrogate mother for an innocent child washed over me, making me smile. I was able to remember my friends perfectly, and even though I had lost so many of them, I was not alone. And I doubted that Kellye was as alone as she felt, she was still reeling with grief.
I started to fold the blanket.
"I hope you know Annie loves you, Kellye. Even if they can't be near us, love isn't something that stops just because we can't see the people anymore." Amber letters spun into words and teased threads into seams and lines. Cuts appeared in the blanket, separating the larger whole into different pieces which then shifted into the pattern I wished.
"Did you know, there's a special place that we can go where we always have friends. But we can only go there while we're kids. And very special kids at that. If we get too grown up, we can't enter the woods." Kellye was torn between watching my hands and my face. I could feel magic pulse through me as I smiled in response to the story that drifted through my mind.
"It's called...the Hundred Acre wood." The toy in my hands was an odd looking but unmistakable bear. The brown blanket had lightened to a homely mustard yellow and he had no features yet, but the shape was about right.
Seelie Arts: Childhood Days.
"A donkey named Eeyore will be your friend. And Kanga, and Little Roo." I made a few adjustments to the stuffed bears features as images started to dance around us of the beings I named. "There's Rabbit, and Piglet, and wise old Owl." It took a lot of focus to keep myself from crying as I wanted to see images other than the ones from an innocent children's story. A place where childhood never had to end.
Appropriate in a way. My childhood had ended. I'd only had three years of it in Fairy Tail and it was over now. A tear forced its way out of my eye and I felt Morgana shift to prevent more from falling and my eyes from reddening and distressing Kellye. But tears had a very powerful magical affect, so...
I brushed the tear from my eye, speaking the final line.
"And I could never forget Winnie the Pooh." I guided the tear with a small pulse of magic to land on the stuffed animals' chest. The fabric shifted and he was now wearing a red shirt over his yellow fur. His eyes and nose tip had been transfigured from yellow wool into soft black stitching with faint brows highlighting his facial features.
May this girl keep her childhood longer than I could.
The spell sank into the warm weave of the cloth that now shaped the portly bear, anchored there firmly by Annie's love and Kellye's memories. I set Pooh Bear on the ground before me and he tottered about a bit, testing the strength in his fabric legs. He could move about at a respectable pace.
"Whenever you feel alone, ask Pooh here about the Hundred Acre wood. And he can tell you a story about it, or go on an adventure in your house. And maybe, just maybe one day, you can follow him when he dreams and visit the Hundred Acre wood yourself and meet all your friends there."
"Hello there Kelly! I'm Winnie the Pooh, but my friends call me Pooh!" The toy said, pulling himself onto the bed and looking at the little girl with wide black stitched eyes and a content smile.
"But...but Tara will want to take him." Kellye told me sadly. "She doesn't have anything that can talk or move like this."
"That's the special part about the magic of the Hundred Acre wood. You have to be invited, everyone knows it's terribly rude to barge into someone else's game or meal without asking first." Pooh told his new playmate. Kellye's shoulders loosened a little with hope and she looked at me, like she hardly dared believe it.
"Pooh's the only one who knows the way to the Wood. And you are the only person he will ever take there. But once you know the way, you can take whoever you want." I eyed Pooh and leaned in to tell Kellye a secret and she mirrored the gesture.
"Pooh will be here for as long as you need him, Kellye. He's not going to go anywhere." I leaned in and whispered into her ear. "That's the fun part about playing make believe..."
Pooh would not actually transport Kellye to another place, but he would be a guide to her thoughts and have some minor illusionary magic alongside the spell animating him to let her experience friends that could not be swayed away by her sister or taken away by her parents. Pooh would be able to tell her stories about the day to day happenings in the Hundred Acre wood, and move and play with her when she was alone. The spell would take strength from Kellye's ability to believe in the miracles of childhood. So when she stopped thinking and playing like a child, the spell would start to wind down and eventually run out. But it I had done it right...the toy would remain even after the magic had faded.
Kinana nuzzled my chin, huffing in delight as Kellye started to talk eagerly to her new friend. Face alight with the special joy of childhood.
:You have done a good thing, my friend:
I believe you have also gained Fairy Godmother status.
Nonsense, more like...Fairy big sister.
Morgana groaned at my pun and I laughed alongside Kellye as she jumped out of bed and started to play tag with Pooh and won easily due to him walking a little clumsily. He still was not a perfect toy. There were a few loose stitches that I'd need to look over again and the spell would no doubt need a bit of polishing to last the little girl until she was ready to grow up.
But her smile and joy at this gift were perfect.
May X785
Jude had continued to be a regular patron of our guild, offering a variety of jobs. I was thinking he was not hiring some people in his company just to have room for Fairy Tail wizards on hand. And I and Simon were the only ones who knew that he had been paying rent on Lucy's apartment in her absence. With every intention of keeping it up until his daughter returned. And if it made me sad, only Simon and my friends knew why.
I had Morgana keep tabs on Kellye and the toy I had made. It only occurred to me that I had essentially used Story Magic as a way to create golems several weeks after the fact. Kagura Wendy and I had run into Lyon and several other members from Lamia Scale, who had also been searching the ocean for any sign of Tenrou Island and Fairy Sphere. Sherry's Doll Magic had been what inspired the chain of thought. Since Pooh was a fully functioning, sentient creature, with his behavior bound within the confines of a single spell. Yet he did not require any charging or personal handling like a golem animated with Doll Magic would.
We were teamed up with Lamia Scale, Team Lyon consisting of Lyon and Sherry, with Fairy Tail's Three Furies, as people had started to jokingly call myself Wendy and Kagura collectively. Standard bandit hunting and capture.
Kagura and Lyon were running a devastating frontal assault while Sherry and I cleaned up the edges. Wendy flickered in and out of combat, gliding through the air with Kinana's help to provide support and healing when necessary or a fast getaway. We were in the zone, it was all good and running smoothly and then-
Alzca has set sail.
Wha, nononono, no livestream no-! I stepped back with a yelp and started abruptly scrubbing my eyes as though to blot out the images from my brain.
"Fae! Are you alright?" Wendy alighted beside me, ready to lay on hands and restore my strength.
"I'm fine, I just need to rewrite my freaking spam filter!"
I am not resting until I have figured out a way to turn the gosh dang ship updates off for anything but a life threatening Tenrou-esque situation! My guildmates love life is right at the freaking top of the list of things I do not need to know!
-vVv-
Since it had been years in the making, Bisca and Alzack were in a celebratory mood by the time we got back from our trip. This meant, I had gotten no sleep between the Alzca ship celebrating every little thing that they did and my working around the clock to write a mental editing file to keep ship updates from throwing me off in a fight like that again. I was just lucky that I had been working with several other people on that job, otherwise I might have lost a bit more than some innocence.
I was practically dead on my feet when we got back to Magnolia.
"You two go on ahead. I've got to get something."
"You look terrible." Kagura said bluntly. "You need to sleep."
"Fae, you should really just be going straight back to the apartment." Wendy agreed with Kagura. I waved them off, feeling myself sway slightly.
"I'll be fine. Got Key with me, don't I? 'Sides, I gotta get something. I'll swing by the hall and we can go home together. Won't take long."
Thus leaving my two friends to worry, we parted ways...
-vVv-
Wendy was keeping a sharp eye, and nose, out for Fae. Whatever she had seen with her magic had distracted her terribly so that she got no sleep between it and her feverishly working on some new spell that she kept on muttering parts of under her breath. What she really wanted was for Fae to go home and sleep for at least a day, but restricting Fae had never gone that well, so...
Kinana won't let her get in too much trouble like this. She reminded herself. The Snake Woman was steady and reliable and gradually becoming more able to transform in a variety of different ways as Fae's patient spell work whittled away at the curse that kept her human form, her true form, locked away. But even knowing that did not help Wendy's 'inner mama dragon' as Fae put it, settle down.
"Dragons typically had hoards in most of the stories that I know. So, it means that whatever they value, they like to keep close and protected. Grandeeny didn't teach you to value wealth, so you'll never be inclined to hoard that." No, Wendy suspected that she valued the same thing Rogue did. She valued family and friends above all else.
Speaking of Rogue...
The wind shifted and carried his scent to her, mingled with Frosch's, Fae's and Kinana's.
He must have run into her while she was out.
What did Fae have to get anyway? She was curious to know.
Rogue entered carrying Fae piggyback who was already dozing against his shoulder. Frosch was riding on Kinana's head as the snake slide across the threshold.
"I told her she should have gone home and rested..." Wendy sighed as Rogue carefully handed Fae over to Kagura before taking a seat.
"She wanted to give something to a person here." He said, casting about and scenting. Wendy could smell the blended scents of many different people on Rogue now that he had been part of Sabertooth for several months, including the distinctive scent of another young male Dragon Slayer. "She said they have green hair, similar to her own."
"Oh, probably Bisca. She's right over there." Wendy pointed across the hall by the bar where Bisca and Alzack were having lunch together. Actually there was something off about their scents that she had noticed, but couldn't quite put her finger on...
Rogue approached the pair and offered Bisca a wrapped parcel. The sharpshooting Requip mage took it with a look of confused surprise on her face. It then began to glow slightly and orange runes appeared on the surface reading aloud in a neutral tone.
"You have: 1 Message. Open message?"
"Uh, yeah, open?" Rogue retreated to join Wendy and their friends a little more quickly than casual walking speed would allow. Simon and Kagura had noticed him enter, but now all eyes were on the pair at the bar.
"What is it?"
"Fae was giggling as she finished wrapping it." Rogue muttered in reply. "Don't know why and doesn't smell dangerous but-"
A burst of pink sparkles and confetti exploded everywhere out of the package making both Bisca and Alzack jump back, leaving the parcel on the counter. Wendy craned her neck and saw it held a...small wooden popgun and a note. Bisca crushed off confetti to read it...then blushed from her hairline to her collarbone.
"What's that about?" Wakaba asked, puffing on his pipe as he emerged from the back of the hall. "What's Fae going on about this time?"
"Well, um..." Romeo, using the Rainbow fire spell Macau had recently taught him, snatched the note out of Bisca's hand, Wendy would have to scold him about that later if Fae didn't beat her to it, and read it aloud.
"'Congratulations, it's a girl'." he read aloud, face twisted in confusion. Now Alzack's face flushed even more darkly than Bisca's and Wendy connected the dots, inhaling the scent that she now understood.
"Bisca, you're-!"
"Ohmygosh, we've got a wedding to plan, now!" Bisca yelped, grabbing Alzack's hands. "Babe, you're free this Sunday, right?" Because the traditional woman that she secretly was under her gunslinging self could not abide the thought of having a baby outside of wedlock. And the horror of that happening was enough to overwhelm her sensibilities that the man be the one to traditionally propose to the woman.
From the people inside the hall, laughter, hoots and cheers started up.
"Bout freaking time!"
"Hey, where's Fae, we gotta work out who gets the pot!"
"She asked him! Did you all see that, she asked him!"
"Don't be stupid: That wasn't asking, that was telling, I totally won!"
Wendy covered her face and fell into helpless giggles as Bisca and Alzack managed to work out something between them and then tried in vain to get everyone's attention.
Simon then rose and pressed two fingers to his lips, using his Darkness Magic to mute everyone else's noise and let their words be heard.
"Everyone, we've got an...announcement to make that Fae sort of beat us to." Alzack said, rubbing the back of his head, face still flushed. "So, we're getting married this weekend and-"
"We're having a baby!" Bisca called, still embarrassed, but her hand placed protectively over her middle and a wide, slightly shell shocked smile on her face. "We're having a baby girl!" Simon let up the muting spell and let everyone celebrate without a damper.
Wendy glanced at Fae then, who was still curled up where Rogue had laid her on the table, her green hair covering her face and moving slightly with each breath she took.
"Well, I guess we know what got her so distracted. And that I'm gonna need to ask Porlyusica to move up my prenatal and midwife lessons."
It was the next generation of Fairy Tail. Wendy felt only an incredible sense of pride and joy filling her chest. Her family was growing. She heard Rogue giving a soft purring sound of contentment and felt herself want to respond to his happiness.
"And so we grow." Kagura remarked, joining them and surveying the rampant celebrations and congratulations being offered to the expecting couple. They had lost quite a few members over the last months as the impact of their loss really hit home. But life went on. Quite literally in this case. Wendy lifted Fae's head gently and slid a folded jacket under it to serve as a pillow until she and Kagura could bring her home.
"Figures Fae can make the guild go crazy even while being asleep." She said, but she was smiling as she did so.