Hunting Sunbeams
This was the last lead that Levy could confidently follow. It was the absolute last chance for her to find what she'd been discretely looking for over the course of eight long months. She was running out of time to find the perfect sunstone to gift Lucy for her birthday.
"If this hunk of junk," interrupted by a raspy wretch then a hesitant throat clearing, "is just like every other stone, I'm going to break it and then rage war on...airplanes." Gajeel grumbled with his face still pressed into the opening of a barf-bag. He pronounced the syllables slow, stretching out the word as if it was the first time he said them aloud. His long black hair was bristling in agitation. "Fucking plague fieldstupid."
"Plagioclase feldspar." Levy corrected from the window seat, flipping through her handwritten notes. "Sunstone."
"That's," a pause to take a deep breath, "what I said."
"We still have another six hours on this flight, why don't you take your motion sickness pills?" the bluenette murmured soothingly, reaching over to push black hair from his sweaty forehead. Levy was used to his grumpiness when traveling, he found it easier to fly himself where he needed to go but it wasn't the most…conspicuous forms of transportation. It also didn't help that Levy was terrified of that method of flying. She didn't feel secure clinging to his claws and having nothing to brace against when Gajeel's flight turned erratic. "I really appreciate you flying with me." A slight nod was given in response and Levy was digging for the pills she kept in the small strap in her leg pouch. She needed to take these last few flight hours to go over where she needed to go and what to look out for; it was hard enough to do without an annoyed, motion sick monster sitting next to you. They needed to keep up appearances and the way the woman on the other side of the aisle from them paled at Gajeel's low growl proved they weren't doing it well.
"Tell me about the rock," moaned lowly and brought Levy out of her thoughts, "distract me till I'm either not sick or sleep."
"Did you know sunstone is linked to good luck and fortune?" she was quick to jump into the conversation, not needing another invite to talk about geology. "It's also a chakra cleanser and helps heighten intuition, which is exactly why it's a perfect fit for Lucy. While her citrine does a great job boosting her manifestation skills and power, sunstone will help her with keeping her energy separate from her guides. It's a stone to help her keep a hold of herself essentially."
"…Right."
"To put it simply it's a stone with incredible healing properties that works across the spiritual, physical and emotional planes." Levy stated plainly with a politely dismissive wave of her hand.
"What's it look like again?"
"…This is the fourth and last time I'm telling you this."
"I'll remember it this time."
"You said that last time," now Levy was practically stiffening, she could feel her hair standing up straight on the nape of her neck.
"Levy." just her name. No impatience or inflection.
"It's classified as a plagioclase feldspar which means when it's viewed from different angles it exhibits a sparkle effect from other smaller objects within it. The stone is usually translucent or transparent and can range from a pale yellow to green to bicolor. They're also extremely rare and pretty pricy so if we're lucky we can also grab a few to sell at the shop." Levy answered slowly, as if she was pulling the information from a vault. She was still annoyed but it was a way to pass the time. As she continued to answer Gajeel's questions she looked at the list of possible locations that she had crossed off: Oregon, Sweden, and Norway; it's a shame they didn't have more time to truly explore. All that was left was Australia, their current destination.
Before long the plane was descending and then bumping almost violently down the runway, sending Gajeel's face right back into the partially full barf-bag. Levy grimaced through the gag inducing noises and was sighing with relief by the time they deboarded. The pixie of a woman was dragging the still queasy dragon through the airport by his hand, happy that they opted to just do carry-ons. She didn't want to see the faces of the flight staff when they saw how many barf-bags they had to dispose of.
"I need you to pull it together big guy," Levy said, "We need to get to Waitpinga, it's got a conservation park along the Mid-coast." She finished at his puzzled look at the name, "I have a sinking feeling we might have to sneak in since I'm pretty sure they won't care for tourists taking souvenirs."
"No cars!" responded on a low and threatening rumble that sent the few people around them scattering like struck billiard balls. Levy could practically hear the alarm mixed in with his outburst.
"I was thinking…you could fly us in after dark. It's faster." No matter how much it scares me, Levy thought but didn't voice. The excited glint in his crimson eyes had her breaking out into a cold sweat; She knew she was going to regret this completely. "Maybe we should eat first."
"I'm starving."
"I would never have guessed," the bluenette responded with an eyeroll, "Lets figure out what isn't going to break my bank out here."
oOo
It took everything Levy had to keep from screaming at the sharp left Gajeel suddenly took. Her fingers were clawing uselessly against gunmetal grey scales, not able to find purchase against the smooth texture. Of course, no matter how much Gajeel had reassured Levy that he'd never drop her it didn't feel like that to her. Even if he squeezed the air out of her while he held her with his fore…paws (is that what they were called on dragons?) as he flew she'd still feel like she could slip out of his grip. After another terrifying dip and a small shriek that scared off a colony of sleeping birds, Levy managed to kick her feet up to press against his claws; she felt more anchored this way since it allowed her to press herself closer to the giant flying lizard she called her partner. A low purring rumble left Gajeel at Levy's efforts before tucking her closer to his underside and spinning in a few tight spirals.
"GAJEEL," Levy whimpered at the display of acrobatics. "I'm going to be sick. I can't wait till my feet are back on the ground." Another deep rumbling sound vibrated through the scared witch; she wished she wasn't so terrified of this so she could enjoy the pinging sensation that touching him always brought her. "Focus," she hissed out between her teeth, worried if she opened her mouth she'd actually vomit. "We need to land within the next mile, along that stretch of sand is fine," Levy continued pointing toward a dark patch of what looked like open sand. Gajeel folded his wings and rocketed toward the sand, the air ripping painfully at Levy's hair. She couldn't breathe. This lunatic of a dragon was going to kill her. Gajeel just as quickly flared his wings back out, rearing back to let his hind legs touch the ground first. A sandy tornado brushed abrasively against Levy's skin and the second her feet hit the uneven ground she fell forward, throwing up everything they'd eaten for dinner.
"You're looking more green than blue," Gajeel chuckled, having shifted quickly back to his 'human' form. The bluenette couldn't hear over the sound of her retching.
"Fuck," she took a second to spit, "you."
"Now?" an amused gleam lit his eyes and had her baring her teeth at him.
"Give me my headlamp. We don't have a lot of time."
"I can see fine in the dark, you don't need it."
"You don't even know what we're looking for," Levy hissed, standing up on shaky legs and holding her hand out expectantly. A second later and the light hit her hand, the metal cold against her shaking fingers. "Thank you." Now the real work began. They only had a few hours to locate a sunstone, in the dark and with a little over 25 acres to explore. Plus, if they were lucky Gajeel would be the only supernatural predator around; they entered Bunyip and Yowie territory. Both equally terrifying in their approaches, and while she did have Gajeel she thought it better to avoid those fights at all costs. Losing either battle was a risk she couldn't afford to take. "There are caves northwest from here," Levy mumbled to herself, turning her face up to the sky. "If I remember correctly that's our best bet." She continued, orienting herself with the stars before taking off at a brisk jog. She knew Gajeel wouldn't be far behind.
"Are we going the right way shrimp?" The dragon trailing after her called out. "We've been running a while."
"Of course we are." Levy panted. She barely managed to vault over the lifted roots of the trees around her. She could only keep up this pace for another few minutes before she had to stop. "We're following Cassiopeia." A jerky point skyward. "Should be around here somewhere," she was wheezing now.
"Levy," sounded loudly from the walkie talkie attached to the belt at her hip, cutting Gajeel off. "Head towards Cepheus, 15 meters in that direction and stop. Capricorn say's you'll find what you're looking for." Lucy directed quickly before dissolving into static. The sound cut off abruptly and Levy sent a silent thank you to Lucy's guardians and corrected her path. Between her and Lucy, they've developed a pretty good road map using stars and constellations.
"She's really amazing," Levy sighed happily, skidding to an abrupt stop 15 meters, exactly where Lucy indicated. A large sinkhole had been disguised by the vegetation around it, the toes of Levy's hiking boots hung over the ledge. "Exactly what we're looking for, Gajeel." Levy danced happily in place as Gajeel skidded right over the edge and disappeared. A long string of curses had the bluenette peering over the edge. "What's down there?"
"A bunch of sharp pointy rocks," grumbled from a distance. "And a few shiny things."
"Shiny things? What color shiny things?" Levy perked up, leaning further over the opening. The earth under her feet began to crumble, causing her to step back warily. Unlike Gajeel she wouldn't survive the fall.
"I don't know, all colors. Red, yellow, blue, green."
"Are any sparkly?"
"Reflective. Sparkly. Whatever. Some have stuff in them like your Plagioclase feldspar." Gajeel sounded proud of himself as he said the scientific name of the stone they'd come hunting.
"Throw me up the rope," Levy was growing impatient, "I have to see this for myself. I'm too far away from the stones to sense if they have magical affinity." She was quickly stripping off her hiking pack, digging around to pull out a climbing harness and a few mountain climbing clips.
"Catch," Gajeel called a second before an end of thick orange rope hit the ground around her feet. Levy managed to step on it as she slid the harness over her hips and fastened it around her waist.
"Climbing down in three," Levy called back while tying her end of rope securely around the trunk of a sturdy tree. She gave a couple of hard yanks with one hand as she quickly hooked the climbing clips to her belt and fastened the largest one around the rope. The bluenette took a few deep breaths as she walked herself back to the edge of the sinkhole and then propelled herself over the lip with a death grip on the rope. She used her arms to slide slowly down the rope, every foot of rope had a large knot that caught her climbing clip, making free falling impossible; the slow progress of lowing herself in a controlled fall and moving the clips over the knots was a testament to her trained upper body strength. By the time Levy made it to the bottom her arms where physically shaking, and she was covered in a thin layer of sweat.
"That took forever." Gajeel sighed from his position leaning against a large stalagmite. "Would have been quicker for me to bring you down." Levy did her best to ignore him as she huffed, shaking out her arms. They were going to be sore tomorrow but if the stone she was looking for was here, it would all be worth it. She was just as quickly sliding out of her climbing harness and stuffing it back in her pack, excitement making her blood bubble. The light from her headlamp had bounced off of Jade and Topaz clusters as she'd descended, the magical affinity low but promising.
"Wow," Levy breathed with a sweep of artificial light against the shimmering walls. She found herself moving impulsively, the slight shaking of her body turning to pinging as her hands slid over stones of different hues and saturation. Large, small, some rough enough to cut her fingers. "Topaz, Jade and Sunstone," Levy sighed out happily. Her finger stopping on a small but red stone.
"You froze," Gajeel rumbled from her right, stalking up behind her to take a closer look at the stone her finger rested on. "That's a small rock."
"The color. I've never seen a sunstone such a blood red before..." Levy whispered, her finger stroking over the glassy surface, "It's strong. I'm practically singing with how hard I'm vibrating." She continued, her bright hazel eyes swinging in Gajeel's direction. "It's perfect Gajeel. We found it."
oOo
They spent the next three hours collecting stones. The high affinity stones, like the blood red sunstone, where wrapped carefully in cloth and packed neatly in Levy's pack. Pretty stones without magical affinities were wrapped delicately in tissue paper and packed in the padded part of Gajeel's smaller pack. GEM-N-I didn't just sell to the hunter's association after all; they needed regular stones for the average collector, they had bills to pay after all.
"I don't think we can carry anymore," Gajeel finally broke the silence while nudging Levy away from the cluster she was inspecting. "My pack is full and yours is getting closer to being too heavy for you to lift. We got the hunk of junk for bunny girl you were searchin' so hard for, we're done."
"Thank you!" Levy couldn't contain her excitement. The gratification of finding the stone would have been enough of a rush but his touch had her feeling downright giddy. She pulled on a lock of his hair and planted a sweet kiss on his cheek when he bent down closer to her. Before Levy could get any further, he hooked an arm around her waist and hauled her flush against him.
"Again,"
"You could say please for once," Levy grumbled but pressed herself closer and skated her lips gently across his. She sighed at the jolt of energy that shot down her spine, "Thank you."
"Welcome," Gajeel smirked while leaning in to kiss her hard, his tongue sliding along the seam of her lips. "Again, please." Levy surrendered with a giggle.