Magic in the Air 18 - Location, Location, Location.
Steel clashed and people screamed, the sandstorm had provided perfect cover for the raiders to strike one of the small settlements dotted around the desert.
Under normal circumstances the small militia that each village had would be a deterrent at best, at worst they'd only be able to hold long enough for the people to run.
Not that that was much better, those that ran would usually be stuck traveling the desert with little to no supplies, and they'd either die of exposure or be hunted down.
If they were lucky they'd be picked up by the Army's response force, but as soon as the Army arrived at the settlement the raiders would just run with their spoils. Then the Army would leave and the raiders would just return later.
Most would choose to die rather than be captured, that fate was worse than death. But worse still it meant that the militia fighters that stayed behind would be butchered to a man. That meant no experienced fighters next time, and the cycle would repeat, again, and again, and again.
The settlements were poor and unable to afford direct help. They had to rely on the Army but they were stretched to thin, they tried but they couldn't be everywhere at once.
Elisabeth was a young girl only 12 years of age, but she understood how the world worked out here, and knew that raiders attacking your village was a death sentence, or worse.
At least it had been, not anymore, the militia had veterans now and the raiders were less in number.
She wasn't afraid anymore, the raiders had failed before, and they would fail again, because...
"High Impact, high yield!" A young voice cut through the chaos.
The fighting paused long enough for terror to show on the raider's faces and then a stream of orange magic struck the middle of their gang, and exploded.
The Berserker and the Valkyries had arrived.
Salem P.O.V
I legitimately hated this desert now.
3 months we'd been here, 3 damn months.
It had just turned February, and still no Sun village.
With a blast of detonation magic under my feet I flew into the melee, my hammer coming down, magic flowing through it.
The bandit tried to step back, but, well,
BANG!
"MY LEG!"
I bit back a snort, what is this SpongeBob? ... Oh, wow I really needed some water.
Pivoting to dodge a sword thrust, I immediately retaliated with a sweep of my hammer.
CRACK!
His ribs shattered under my return strike, throwing the rat to the side.
"AHHH!" A new opponent roared.
Holy crap, that guys huge.
"Barrier: Shield!"
I brought my forearm up, an orange translucent tower shield formed as the hulking brute brought his axe down.
BANG!
The shield exploded the moment he made contact, repelling the force of the blow, and shattering, launching shrapnel in that general direction. The magic rapidly fading, but only after embedding itself deep into the target and detonating into secondary impacts.
No wonder he dropped his axe and screamed.
He was too close for a hammer blow now.
Good job I had a back up.
"Backblast," I snarled out at the animal, punching him. The magic detonated point blank, launching the, easily 7 foot behemoth, through his own lines.
That's about when the cowards lost their morale and broke, trying to flee.
And now that the defenders were no longer mixed in, clashing with the bandits ranks, well.
A voice came from above, "Salem!"
"On it! Barrier: Aegis!" I raised my left hand and a large barrier shimmered into being, similar to the tower shield, but bigger and thicker.
It circled myself and the defenders in a translucent orange bubble, then.
"SKY DRAGON'S ROAR!"
The air roared, followed by a deafening THUMP, as a twister descended from the sky, striking the retreating bandits.
It hit hard enough that the ground shook slightly at the impact, for all of a second.
The barrier held, then the pressure from the attack stopped, and I released the barrier, causing it to fade from existence, shattering into nothing.
Wendy flew into view, tired but not gasping for air, "Did I get them?"
"Not quite," A blur of white descended down into the sand cloud brought about by Wendy's attack. Several blue energy flashes lit up in the sand cloud, and a bandit sailed over head crashing onto the sands behind the defenders line.
A pale girl in a black blazer over a white dress, with black leggings and black flat top heeled shoes, walked out of the cloud.
She flicked her white hair from her eyes and kicked one of the downed bandits making sure they were down, her sharp brown eyes studied them for a moment.
She nodded with a huff, her white cat ears perking up, even as her white cat tail swished side to side showing the pink bow tied to it.
The girl sheathed her blade, a familiar saber, and walked up to me, showing she was a foot or so smaller than me, which was to be expected I suppose.
"Carla, was that the last of them?" I asked the now HUMAN shaped Carla.
"I believe so, yes," She nodded.
"Hup," Wendy landed next to her sister, only slightly smaller than her, and clad in a white and blue tribal sun dress, a gift she has received for healing someone.
Both of their wings dissipating now they were on the ground, the red and white cloaks around their necks smoothing out against their, backs now the wings were gone.
"EVERYONE ALRIGHT?" I asked the crowd.
I didn't get a true reply as much as people just cheered in relief.
Fair enough.
"Well now that's dealt with, let's see about getting some water, yeah?" I asked.
Carla brushed some of the sand off of her outfit, "Indeed, it's hot, and this sand is course and rough, and it gets everywhere."
I sighed at the unintentional quote, but nodded in agreement.
If I didn't know better I'd say she was doing it on purpose.
"Mau, it's not that bad," Wendy chirped, and waved at the crowd as some waved back.
She had a blush on her face from embarrassment, but was too happy to care.
Carla rolled her eyes, "Yes the gratitude is nice, but it won't be if we die of thirst."
Wendy pouted at her.
The crowd were reorganizing now, the milita members moving to apprehend the downed bandits, for some frontier justice, likely execution.
Not our problem, you end up seeing some shit after 3 months in this hell hole, my pitty well was bottomed out.
Hell, even Wendy only shot a single concerned look before turning away.
Carla simply pulled out the map we'd gotten from our last assault, "Hmm, yes, this way."
The human-exceed led us away from the clean up.
The bandit groups were drying up, we'd been taking them out as we traveled, so much for not getting involved.
Still, the live combat had helped push us. Wendy and Carla were both better fighters now.
More like their older canon self's in personally as well, though they hadn't grown much physically, even Carla's new human form was obviously younger here than in canon.
My ninth birthday had passed months ago, and Wendy's was around the corner now. Our assistance out here had been welcomed by most, but had slowed us down significantly.
Say what you want, but Atlas Flame knew how to hide a Village.
We were closing in now though, there were only so many places to hide.
Having said that, it had upsides too. People were willing to trade with us, and we had earned some good will with the locals.
Settlements weren't relocating as often, which meant more reliable trade routes, and that in turn meant it was easier to replenish our dwindling supplies.
If not for that, we would have had to have left the desert 6 or so weeks ago.
"Here we are," Carla paused, checked the map, then nodded.
A crude stone building with a name carved above the entrance, "The cactus tap?"
I pointedly stared at Wendy at the reminder...
"It's not my fault!" She declared, immediately understanding, she was red faced and embarrassed, "It smelled safe!"
Carla visibly covered her smile.
"Hu-hu," I deadpanned, walking over to the building
The incident happened a good month or so ago when Wendy had tapped a cactus for water, only for it to be mildly hallucinogenic.
Basically, it was cactus juice, and very reminiscent of, Sokka from Avatar the last airbender's, own little trip.
Only ours could fly and was physically strong enough to overpower us both.
"No more drugs for you young lady," Carla teased.
"Nooooooo, Caaaaarla," Wendy whined.
Yeah. Considering what she put us through, we weren't going to let her forget about it.
I snorted as we entered the inn.
Finally, shade.
The bar was a lot cleaner here than the one we'd found at the port. The port was a hub for the underground for obvious reasons, but the desert settlements were separate from the bandit tribes, they were just other people trying to survive.
Honestly their culture was similar to that found in our guild, perhaps their descendants of survivors from Nirvana?
Questions for later.
"Good afternoon, children!" The man behind the counter smiled and waved us in happily.
Considering his head coverings all I could make out was his dark brown skin and eyes
We waved back and took a table, it was a basic slab of wood on four legs, it did the job, same for the stools we were sat on.
I placed the over the shoulder bag I was carrying down.
Yeah, our original bag was long gone, may it rot in pieces.
The friendly bartender came over to our table almost as soon as we had settled, "What can I get for you?"
"Water please, and we'd like to buy some reserves if you have any," It was Carla who answered, in a prim manner, removing her black blazer.
Why she wore that in the desert, I haven't a clue. Though to be fair, I was still wearing my armor, so I had no room to talk. Well, at least mine provided some defense.
"Of course, I'll get some to you in a moment, as for the reserves, I'll have to check," He motioned to the back of his bar, then turned to fulfill our orders.
Water was a commodity in the desert, expensive, but also something you could make a lot of money off of.
Luckily for us, between our own supplies, and money, followed by stealing what we needed from the bandits we defeated, we could afford it.
'I wonder how all that money going back into the local economy will effect trade... Ah, it's probably fine,' I dismissed, not my area of expertise.
"Man, it has been a day," I groaned, taking my hammer off of my back, from its make-shift sheath. Basically a long strap running down my back followed with a small bag to rest the hammer's head in, and a button up clasp at the top on the haft to keep it in place.
"Indeed," Carla sighed, as I rolled my shoulders.
"Come on guys it wasn't that bad," Wendy insisted.
"We were ambushed Wendy," Carla responded flatly.
"W-well yeah, but we beat them, and we saved a bunch of people," She smiled softly, "Plus we managed to stop their attack."
Carla smiled back, "Yes, I suppose you are correct."
I laughed slightly, always happy to kick a little slaver ass, "True, still exhausting though."
"Here you are," The barkeep had returned, and smiled, "Good news, we have a small surplus of water."
"Thank you!" Wendy chirped.
"Of course, do you need anything else?" He asked politely.
"Oh, oh, do you have any grilled cactus?" She respondeded happily.
Carla huffed happily at her sisters enthusiasm, but shook her head in bemusement.
"Of course, it's our house special, served with mutton, and for you two?" He continued looking over myself and Carla as Wendy fidgeted happily.
"I'll have some Mutton with pasta if you have it, and do you sell tea here?" The cat girl questioned.
"We aren't a tea house, but we do have some Brigham tea," He informed her.
"That would be lovely, thank you," Carla inclined her head politely.
The poor girl needed her tea fix, and we'd run out a while ago, on the bright side she liked the more traditional teas here.
On the down side I'd had one hell of a caffeine headache.
"I'll just have some of your dumplings please, and some information real quick, if you don't mind," I turned to face him.
He raised a brow but nodded.
I continued, taking a sip of water, "We're looking for a place, and our information says it should be around here. Know anything about any giant sightings?"
At this point we'd practically covered the entire desert twice over, it was getting a little annoying.
The man frowned softly, eyeing my orange gambeson and tattered brown cloak, and then Carla's cat ears and Wendy's fangs.
"Ah, you must be those mage children," He smiled softly, "Yes, though, the last sighting was over two hundred years ago."
I smiled, pay dirt.
I landed with a roll and continued running, miniature detonations propelling me.
Not enough for flight like my friends but it greatly accelerated me.
Bang.
I launched myself over the up coming sand dune.
Then rolled once more, as I landed.
It was harder than it looked with a massive hammer on your back.
"Are you doing alright, Salem?" Wendy called down to me.
"FINE," I replied.
The sooner I figure out flight the better, luckily I'm making some progress with my barrier magic, as a substitute for Aera magic. I still didn't have enough control though, and it wasn't my main focus, actual barriers were, though I WAS getting pretty good at that now.
Bright side? I'd learned to, effectively, Naruto run.
"What the hell?" I asked myself under my breath.
In the setting suns light, shadows appeared, to be more accurate the shadows of rocky out crops and some small mountains.
Behind all of that was a larger mountain, I think this is it.
"LAND AT THE BASE OF THE OUTCROPS!" I shouted up at the flying girls
"OKAY!" Wendy yelled back, seeming to perk up.
And with the speed we were moving at that didn't take long.
The girls got there first, of course, but I was a close second, or third I suppose, considering there's both Wendy and Carla.
"Oh, man," I came to a screeching halt, panting for breath.
"Are you okay, Salem?" Wendy asked with a little bit of concern.
Waving her off, I got out a reply, "Yeah, yeah, good cardio, oh boy."
I finally began getting my breathing under control, even as Carla rolled her eyes at me.
"Okay, I think this is it," I looked up at the mountain range.
"REALLY!?" Wendy broke out into an ecstatic grin.
I nodded.
"Finally," Carla shook her head, having returned to her cat like form in flight, to conserve magic.
"What you don't trust me?" I put a hand over my heart in faux pain, "Oh, Carla how could you."
That garnered a giggle from Wendy.
Carla huffed out a small laugh, "It isn't you I don't trust, it's the rumors."
"Fair," I shrugged, "But this matches what I know about the terrain, or at least what I was told."
Or had seen in the anime/manga, the rock out crops were close to the same, not that I could say that, but this was the first true mountain range we had come across regardless.
"This is so exciting," Wendy looked around in wonder.
"Let's confirm it before we go celebrateing, yes?" The cat girl responded flatly.
"Ah, y-yeah," Wendy settled down somewhat.
I snorted, "Well, we're gonna have to get climbing then, or flying in your case."
Wendy and Carla shared a look.
...
Oh, I do not like that smirk Carla has.
She shifted human in a literal flash and advanced.
I tried to take a step back.
Tried.
Wendy had grabbed my right arm with a somewhat sorry smile at least, "Sorry, Salem, this is faster."
"What's the matter don't you trust me?" Carla retorted playfully, repeating my words, while grabbing my other arm.
Both girls wings deployed.
Oh, no.
Then I was airborne, my weapons and armor not even slowing the two girls anymore.
I'm proud to say I didn't panic, that didn't mean I wasn't surprised.
Though I DID purposefully locked up so I wasn't dead weight. While it's true I trusted them both not to drop me, I would have liked a heads up.
"You could have just asked!" I said loudly, to cut through the wind.
Wendy just laughed happily.
Carla remained quiet but had an obvious catty smirk in place.
"Woop," My feet were back on the ground, or mountain at any rate, as the girls released me.
"There, was that so bad?" Carla's huffed, her arms crossed, though her smug smile spoke volumes.
Wendy scratched the side of her face nervouly, unsure whether to be embarrassed or happy.
I sighed, and walked over to the nearby cliff face.
"Let's just see what we... oh," Well, damn if that's not a sight.
"Wooow," Wendy had followed me to the edge and was looking on with no small amount of wonder.
"Well, it would appear the rumors were correct," Carla rose a brow at the sight.
"Yup," I smiled.
And it's a good thing Wendy has wings now, because as she leaned in, she over took the cliff edge.
I will never understand how she can be so clumsy walking, yet so eligent in the air.
Sun Village was in sight, I know that because there's a giant fire burning in the village, and even from this far away those people are far to big to be normal humans.
"Shall we go and introduce ourselves?" I asked aloud.
"W-well it's only polite," Carla coughed nervously, now having a good look at the giants in the distance, more specifically their size.
Even as Wendy nodded her head rapidly in excitement, now flying over the cliff edge as she did so.
Looking over said edge, I saw the forest surrounding the village extending all the way to the mountains base.
...
I smiled.
"Well... see you at the bottom," I waved, and jumped.
Wendy made panicked motions to catch me, oh the irony.
But Carla's open mouth shock was pure gold.
The wind whistled past me as I began free felling, "WOOOHOOO."
"SALEM!" Carla was angry and diving after me, pulling a panicked Wendy along as she did.
I readjusted my flight path with a small detonation, avoiding a rocky out crop.
"I got this!" I yelled back up.
Revenge is sweet.
"Gah," Until I was snapped up by Carla anyway.
I may have under estimated the speed she could fly.
All I could say was, "Aww," In disappointment.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" Ok might have pissed Carla off more than intended.
On a side note, ouch my ear.
"Oh, come on, I've fallen from highs like this before, remember the time you two basically air dropped me in the middle of that camp?" I reminded.
Good times, I remember very specificly yelling, BOMBS AWAY.
"Be that as it may, that's no excuse to put yourself in unnecessary danger!" She retorted angrily, even as we landed.
"That wasn't very nice, Salem," Wendy frowned cutely at me.
...
Ah, dammit.
"Ok, ok, I get it, I'm sorry, I'm just excited, we made it," I admitted and rubbed the back of my neck.
Wendy seemed to except my apology, Carla just huffed.
Crap.
So I continued, "Ok look, let's just make our way to the village, you're not as nervous about it now, right?"
Carla twitched a little, "Considering the heart attack you just gave me, certainly not!" She hissed out.
"Oh, come on, I would have been fine," I grumbled.
"Not if you went splat you wouldn't have," She retorted.
Wendy laughed awkwardly, as we argued.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think I'd panic you like that, shock yes, panic no. I'd never want to upset either of you, certainly not on purpose," I apologized.
She huffed again, but relented, "Don't do it again," She demanded.
"Come, Wendy," She walked ahead, remaining in human form.
I sighed, at the dismissal, but followed.
The forest was large, however, and we tiny.
"Any idea on the distance?" I made conversation.
Wendy made a weird cute sound, obviously thinking.
Carla sighed, "A couple of hours at least."
"Then why don't we just fly?" Wendy broke from her concentration.
"Couple of reasons," I spoke first, "First, we don't want to seem aggressive in any manner, not sure about you but I don't want to get on the bad side of a bunch of giants. Second is to conserve magic incase we need a quick escape. And thirdly, if I tried to keep up with you, there's a very real possibility of me being broken by a tree at those speeds, if you didn't carry me anyway, which leads back to point two."
Carla nodded in agreement, "Indeed, its safer this way."
Now I doupt we'll have any issues, but it never hurt to have a fall back plan.
...
A thought occurs, if the giants had giant dogs, whats in this forest?
I looked into the surrounding foliage, almost expecting a giga Tiger or something, nothing.
Yeah, I'm just gonna keep my guard up for now.
Thankfully nothing attacked us as we traipsed through the foliage.
But, as we got closer, the sound of civilization reached us, booming laughs, and clattering items. The most attention grabbing of it all, though perhaps it shouldn't be, was the shaking ground.
Right, giants.
It didn't take long from there to reach the edge of the forest from that point.
Finally.
We exited the forest without issue, we hadn't even been attacked, no golems, killer sand worms, or martial arts Ostriches... the desert was weird.
Tasty though.
That might have been the hunger talking.
I let out a whistle at the sight of the village, the homes were massive, basically mountains in there own right, giants went to a fro, not even seeing us.
Not unexpected considering there damned toes were likely bigger than us.
But the best part was in the now twilight sky, the burning Flame lit up the place beautifully.
"Wooow," Wendy 'Marvelled' under her breath.
I chucked at the mental pun.
"Eep," A voice reached us.
Thats weird, I don't see anything?
"Hi!" Wendy chirped happily, directing my gaze downwards, because it wasn't a giant that had spoke.
Sat at the edge of the forest was a depressed looking girl, around Wendy's age but with long straight red hair and eyes, pale skin clashed against a long purple gown.
Wait a minute, Flare?
The girl didn't respond at first only staring, wide eyed, in surprise.
Carla actively raised her brow at the young girl.
"I'm Wendy, it's nice to meet you," The bluette trilled happily.
Because of course she did.
The red head flinched slightly, stopping Wendy cold, deflating at the reaction.
"Are you alright?" Carla reacted immediately with concern, mother henning the girl, just short of actually touching her.
Which judging by how confusingly scared Flare was, was probably a good idea.
The red head wasn't terrified mind you, its more how a child reacts to something that doesn't make sense.
"We aren't here to hurt anyone, not that we could even if we wanted to," I stole a glance at the giants in the village.
Then I crouched down making myself smaller than her, "My friend here is looking for her mother," I gestured to Wendy, who waved more timidly this time.
"We thought we'd find some answers here, assuming this is Sun Village?" I added softly.
The little Flare relaxed slighty, more confused than scared now, she nodded slightly.
Wendy perked up at the confirmation.
"Thank you," Carla added just as softly, "Do you have a name? You've met my sister Wendy, I'm Carla, and that is Salem."
"H-Hi again," Wendy greeted her with a bow this time, far calmer now.
The red head looked us over, becoming genuinely curious as she quietly responded, "F-flare."
Her response was more of a mumble than actuall speech, if I didn't already know her name I wouldn't have caught it.
"Flare?" Wendy tried, then responded more firmly, "I like it."
"Indeed," Carla smiled kindly.
Flare gave a timid smile at the praise.
What the hell did Raven tail do to this girl?
No, calm, don't spook her.
I swallowed my rage.
"Sisters?" Flare looked at both Wendy and Carla.
"Yup," Wendy replied happily, visablly restraining herself.
"That's right, we're family," Carla nodded softly, with a kind smile.
Flare cocked her head, and gave me curious look.
...
"Erm, I'm their friend," I tried, she hadn't actually asked a question, after all.
Flare nodded at that, "You're all small, like... me."
Both of my teammates were a little confused at that, though Wendy was actively pouting as the smallest of us.
Yeah now that Carla's human form was taller than her, she had decided that she wasn't small, just... still growing.
Not inaccurate, but also not true.
"Ah, thats pretty normal where we come from," I answered.
"Your from outside," The red head stated, it wasn't a question.
In all fairness we hadn't really been hiding that fact, we'd out right stated it even.
We did stick out after all.
I do question why exactly, Flare in canon took so long to question why she was so small compared to the giants.
Perhaps she arrived here too young to really remember the outside world?
But it seems she IS aware there's a difference, it just took her that long to gain the courage to leave.
Which again means I have to ask, why was she so afraid of the outside world, what happened, does she even remember?
"That's right," Carla answered.
"You... You should go and see the chief," She told us, more confidently, nodding to herself slightly.
"Hmm, I don't suppose you could take us to them?" I asked kindly.
I really didn't want to be stuck looking for the chief while dodging giants, plus it shows that we don't mean any harm.
Flare smiled slightly, beginning quietly, her voice quickly becoming stronger at the end, "Yeah... Yeah!"
"Well then, lead on, Red," I offered her my hand.
Then after a second of pause she accepted my hand, with a questioning look, "Red?"
"Yeah," I stood and pulled her up, "Red hair, Red."
What can I say? Canon Flare's inclination to nicknames gave me some inspiration in the moment.
It also seemed to endear the girl to me, she smiled, "Blondy!"
Eh, I've been called worse.
Carla sniggered behind me, "Blondy?"
I sighed.
A/N: Yes Flare in now present in the story, it was expected, but salem had no idea if she would actually be present, seeing as her timeline is a little vague.
They have spent a good amount of time searching the desert at this point, and have had an impact in the local area, while they are aware of some of the impact they have made, they aren't of others, their mission is to find sun village, and destroy any slavers that they find, the sociological impact their having isn't on their mind.
@2 up- Yeah, I had some serious trouble with the app at up load for the last chapter, don't know why it was glitching out but it was, and I don't think it was just me, I found 2 other stories saying the same thing. Thanks for pointing it out regardless.
@AliceCullen3- Glad you like it.
@nexusplayer- Yeah, girls (As a general rule) mature fast than boys, disregarding the fact that Carla is both older than the others and of a different species she has a better self understanding of herself than the others (emotionally) disregarding the whole different species thing which I think anyone would be aware of and at least somewhat concerned. Likewise Salem is extremely mature due to his nature as a reincarnation (Not to say he doesn't have fun) but he is human and this body doesn't have hormones, yet. Yeah thats gonna hit him like a truck come canon, something he'll have to come to terms with.
@Carlmike94- not really a nuke, a few 100 meters is nothing compared to a couple of miles... for now. But yes still extremely destructive. As for Gildarts, maybe they'll strike up a kinship of sorts, but while both magics are destructive there also very different. As for the fact that Salem practically vaporized some slavers, it isn't as big a deal as you'd think. Wendy already had time to adjust she was already aware he had killed in self-defense before. While Carla ultimately already knew what he would do, and is more concerned for him and wendy than any slavers. Admittedly Wendy was still shocked at KNOWING this happened, yes. But Salem ATOMIZED them, she didn't hear any screaming, or see any grizzly remains, they were just gone, and he made sure she wouldn't have to see people dying directly, so for her its much the same, her friend has killed to protect people, the count is just higher. Now granted, as I stated, it is a shock to her, but he warned her before hand how far he would go given the chance, and went out of his way to make sure know one else would see people dying. Also a lot of that shock was the condition of the slaves they had found. This is more a matter of her worldview being challenged, but as we see in canon she is a strong willed girl, she'll be fine when all is said and done, she's adapting even now.