Chapter 9
Thirty-five minutes after securing Fairy Tail a spot within the competing hierarchy of the Grand Magic Games, Logan, Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and Erza were all barging through the doors of the even less expensive inn where the rest of the guild was staying in Crocus. Almost immediately upon clearing the vicinity of the sky labyrinth, Warren had been able to reach them with his telepathy and had informed them all of Wendy's status.
They all collectively rushed up the stairs and nearly broke down the door to the closest of the several common rooms the twenty or so other guild members would be sharing.
"WENDY!" They shouted as one.
Master Makarov, Happy, Lisanna, Cana, Max, Bisca, and almost everyone else were all huddled around the bed. Wendy and Carla were both tucked tightly under the covers. They were both unconscious again, sleeping soundly, but still with grimaces on their faces. Erza and the rest of them blasted over to join the others.
"How is she?" Erza asked.
"She woke up and spoke a little when I found her, but she's been out cold again ever since." Lisanna told them.
"Can I examine her?" Logan asked.
Everyone turned their eyes to look at him. There was a grim, earnest determination on Logan's face, as if he'd move to do just that whether he was give permission or not.
"Of course, my boy." Makarov said.
Logan stepped forward and knelt down on knee beside the bed. He touched two fingers to Wendy's neck and closed his eyes for half a minute.
"Her pulse is stable. That's a relief."
He pulled one of her arms out from under the covers and held it up. In Logan's large and gauntlet clad hand, Wendy's twelve-year-old arm looked as delicate as a piece of blown crystal, like it might snap right off if he weren't careful. Logan ran his right thumb across the inside of her arm from the bicep all the way to her wrist. After adjusting his angle slightly, he repeated the process with her other arm.
"No injection marks, and her blood feels like it's running smoothly the best I can tell, so it may not be poison. She's in a nightgown right now instead of the dress she was wearing before. Who changed her?"
"Right here, partner." Bisca said, taking half a step forward.
"Any marks on her body at all? Cuts, scrapes, or bruises of any kind?" He asked.
"Clean as new fallen snow. There wasn't an injury on her that I could see."
Logan nodded. "Okay, that rules out an animal attack or any kind of telekinetic magic. I can't detect anything but the faintest traces of her own magic power on her either, so she's not under any kind of paralysis or weakening spell."
"So, what do you think it is?" Lucy asked.
"I don't know, really. Maybe some kind of leechcraft spell. You know, drain enough out of her to send her body into shock and magic deficiency. Hgn! There's nothing I can do here!"
Logan growled out the last words with more true anger than anyone in the guild had seen him display so far. He was radiating a clear and bitter resentment towards his own inability to help Wendy in any way.
"She'll be okay, man. We'll take care of her." Natsu said reassuringly, but with just as much anger in his own voice leaking through.
"Speaking of, what are we doing to take care of her?" Gray asked.
Master Makarov replied, "I've sent Jet back to Magnolia with a note for Porlyusica. If anyone can help Wendy, she'll be able to for sure."
"Is there anything we can do for her right now?" Lucy asked.
"I don't think so, guys. We don't really have any healers besides Wendy herself right now." Levy told them.
"So, we really have no option but to wait." Erza said.
"Master already discussed this with the games planning committee, and since Wendy was originally supposed to be part of the team, we'll have her transported to the infirmary at the stadium tomorrow where their doctors can take a look at her, and she'll be safer as well." Max informed them.
"That's good to know, and at least that way, even if she can't see it, Wendy will be able to hear us mopping the floor with everyone else just on our first day." Gray said.
"You should all go back to the Honeybone Inn and try to get some rest now." Master Makarov said. "You all did very well to get us into the Grand Magic Games, and you'll need your strength for tomorrow."
No one, not Logan, Natsu, Erza, Lucy, or Gray moved a muscle.
"If anything happens during the rest of the night, I promise you'll all be the first to know." The Master said.
"Very well, then." Erza said. "Come on, everyone. Let's go."
She, Natsu, Gray and Logan slowly started to shuffle back to the door. Lucy instead went to the bed, and gave both Wendy and Carla a loose hug, wrapping her arms over their covered bodies. She then rejoined her group by the door, and they filed out one by one, each casting a final glance back as they left.
Logan was the last one to leave, and he lingered in the doorway longer than the rest. His gaze was laser focused on Wendy. Everyone could tell that as worried and concerned as they all were, his went deeper still. His hand on the door was digging into the wood, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. He looked like a man furiously chastising himself for some kind of failure. Logan gave a long and seemingly plaintiff exhale, and finally slipped out of sight.
OOO
Another half an hour later, the main team competing in the games were back in their room at the Honeybone Inn. Logan, Natsu and Grey had all been forced to stand out in the hall while Erza and Lucy changed their clothes. Erza was in the same lavender colored pajamas with crosses that she wore to the sleepover months before, while Lucy had changed from her pink jeans and t-shirt into a dark blue tank-top and and white athletic shorts.
The girls then reciprocated the act for the guys. Natsu and Gray had simply changed into sweatpants, choosing to go shirtless to sleep. For his part, Logan was wearing the same set of sleeping clothes that Lucy had given him four months previously.
After everyone had changed, they all just kind of sat around, getting ready to actually go to sleep. Lucy was brushing her hair. Natsu was clipping his toenails. Erza was mentally going over everything in her requip inventory in preparation for the games. Gray was reading a book he'd borrowed from Levy. Logan was doing a handful of slow and deliberate push-ups. No one was talking.
Just before they were all about to turn off the lights for the night, there suddenly came a gentle knocking at the door to the outer balcony.
"What the?" Natsu barked in surprise.
"What could that be now?" Erza asked, frustration permeating her voice.
Erza got out of her bed, and in a manner both aggravated while retaining caution, she pulled back the curtain to the terrace. On the other side of the glass stood Ultear Milkovich from Crime Sorcière. Her irritation fading away, Erza proceeded to open the door for her.
"Ultear. What's going on?"
"I'm sorry for the late hour. I know you all must be exhausted. First of all, though, congratulations. Fairy Tail has it's place within the Grand Magic Games."
"Uh, thanks for that, Ultear, but couldn't that have waited for another time?" Lucy asked.
"Again, I apologize, but Jellal sent me. Now that Fairy Tail is sure to be in the games, we feel we should give you some more information. I could only come now thanks to the late hour, due to how few people are left on the street. We really do need to talk, but I shouldn't be seen here, and someone may overhear us. Can we go somewhere?"
"Now?! Seriously?!" Natsu asked.
"Ah, hell, I'll go." Gray said. With a flurry, he chucked the covers off his body and stood up. "I'm barely tired anyway, and if it's all that important, we should have the info before going in tomorrow."
"Thank you, Gray. I'll wait out here for you to change."
She stepped back through the terrace doors, closing them firmly behind her.
"You sure about this, Gray? After what happened to Wendy." Logan asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Ultear may not entirely look it, but she's really pretty powerful. Even if something does happen, I'm sure she and I can handle it."
Logan mulled it over for a quick second. He'd been thinking about it constantly, and to his mind, the point to attacking Wendy had possessed a double meaning. It had both been an attempt to keep Fairy Tail out of the games, but it had also been a message. Someone had wanted Fairy Tail to be on edge, to think someone was coming after them and to be afraid. They were trying to tell them that even Fairy Tail wizards could be targeted.
Logan finally decided that Gray was right, and the risk was minimal. The enemy had failed in the first half of their attempt, and unless someone had been following them ever since they left the sky labyrinth and were still watching, they wouldn't see Gray leave. Logan had set all of his skills to spotting a tail from the moment they'd heard about Wendy, echolocation blipping included, and he was reasonably confident they weren't being watched just then.
Since he had no objection to make, Logan said nothing more.
Fully dressed again, Gray stepped quietly to the terrace.
"Be back soon, guys. Don't wait up. I'll try not to wake anyone when I get back."
OOO
Down on the surface level, Gray turned to Ultear.
"So, what's this all about?"
"How about we walk and talk? I know you must be tired, but given my status, this may be my only chance to see a little of the city." She replied.
"Yeah. Sure, I guess."
The two of them started walking together without consciously picking any particular direction. It was a casual pace, neither fast nor slow, allowing them to make not unsubstantial progress while not tiring themselves either. It made for a pleasant stroll.
Looking around, Gray observed a few different houses just then starting to turn their lights out, but more than he'd thought he'd see. He had assumed that the entire city would have been bustling during the preliminary round, but it appeared to him like a lot of people must have either already been asleep, or hit the sack as soon as sky labyrinth was over.
"Eh, maybe I'm over thinking this. Why do I even care, anyway? Maybe it's just this one part of the city. Not like I know the habits of all the different neighborhoods anyway." Gray thought.
He looked down at the young woman walking next to him.
"I don't think I noticed before, but she's pretty tall. She can't be less than just a couple inches under me. At least five-foot-nine, and that's as tall as Erza."
He couldn't help but look her over and compare her appearance now to the last time he'd seen her on Tenro Island. The biggest difference he could see was her choice of clothing. He didn't know why she would have chosen that, but the unitard she had on did nothing to conceal the fullness of her provocative curves.
"Stop that, man! What the hell are you looking at?!" He scolded himself.
Incapable of keeping the awkwardness he was feeling out of his voice, Gray asked, " Uh, so what'd you need to talk about, anyway?"
"Jellal, Meldy and I, had absolute faith in your group's ability to enter the games, so in order to be as helpful as we could, we compiled dossiers on all the guilds who'd also be competing. This was naturally before we knew about the preliminary elimination round, so I've brought only the ones for the teams who made it in." She said.
Ultear then adjusted her shoulder, and Gray saw the outline of a strap underneath the cape of her cloak sliding down her arm. He hadn't noticed before that she'd been carrying a bag. She held up a small and inexpensive looking leather satchel case. She held it out to Gray, and he took it with an appreciative nod.
"Thanks. This must have taken you guys a boatload of work to put all of that together considering you thought there was gonna be a hundred and eight guilds."
"It wasn't easy, that's true. We began as soon as heard that you and your friends were really still alive and would be entering. We'd actually just finished scoping out the final one only two days before we appeared to all of you at the beach." Ultear said.
"You maybe want to give me the highlights on this?" Gray asked.
"Why?"
"Just that I'll give a once-over myself, and I'll make sure everyone else reads them in the morning, but I'd like to hear it direct from you as well. You watched these guys close up, so I want to hear your opinion, not just the conclusions that Crime Sorcière came to as a group." He said.
Ultear was taken aback, clearly somewhat surprised to have her opinion solicited like that. It took her a few brief moments to recover herself and say something.
"Of course. I'd be glad to." Ultear said. "First of all, I'd say that your biggest threat will be the Sabertooth guild."
"Natsu, Lucy, and Logan had a run-in with a couple of their members tonight. Are they really that tough?" Gray asked.
"Yes, I'd have to say they are. In terms of numbers alone, they're easily the most powerful guild in Fiore at present. They have more S ranked wizards than anyone else, and the minimum requirement for being allowed into Saberooth is a A ranking." She explained.
Gray couldn't stop his eyes from widening at what he'd just heard.
"Seriously? Okay, well thanks for the info."
"I can't say for certain who else will be on their team, but I can tell you that one of their strongest members is currently not here in Crocus. Minerva Orlando, daughter of their guild's master. I hate to say this, but that's probably a good thing for Fairy Tail. From what we've been told, her territory magic is nothing to scoff at. Without her, the only two guaranteed to be on the team will be their two dragon slayers, Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney."
"Well, I'm sure Natsu will be glad to hear that. Moron wouldn't shut up about them all night. If I caught everything they said, it seems like those two might have a beef with Logan too."
"Really? We didn't know that." Ultear said.
"From the sound of it, I'm guessin' nobody did but Logan and them. Guess we'll just have to be careful."
"I still can't believe you all have Logan Bloodborne in your guild." Ultear said.
"Why not? You guys know more about him than we do. What you said at the beach about him being a bounty hunter, not just a guy who occasionally took freelance jobs like that, it's pretty much the first real thing we've actually learned about him."
"He keeps to himself?"
Gray said, "Let me put it this way: Logan's as quiet about who he is as Natsu is loud."
His quip elicited a giggle from Ultear's throat. She instantly held the side of her fist up to her mouth in the manner of a cough and did her best to contain her laughter. The giggle that did come out was a flittering, melodic sound, and Gray was surprised to hear how funny she really seemed to find his off the cuff remark. He couldn't help but think that a full laugh would have been a booming thing from her.
The sound of her laugh set Gray at ease. He relaxed a bit, and felt alright about continuing the conversation.
"So, who else have we got to deal with in this thing?"
With an easy smile on her face, Ultear said, "Two guilds in the competition you're already quite familiar with: Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus."
"Oh, yeah. Those guys."
Unbidden by his conscious will, Gray's mind suddenly conjured two mental images. One was of Lyon, with his smugly grinning face and annoyingly smooth voice. The other was of the creepy Ichiya and his band of disciples who could never seem to settle on a title for their hero. Both images served equally to somewhat dampen the pleasant mood he'd been feeling a moment before.
"Maybe if I'm lucky during all this, I can convince Juvia to get nutsy over Lyon. It'd be nice to get her to just stop smothering me. Let 'em be insane about each other instead of buggin' me all the time." Gray thought.
Outwardly, he said, "Yeah, I figured all along that those two would get in. Doesn't come as a surprise."
"So, I assume then I won't have to tell you about all of their members."
"Nope. Lamia Scale is sure to have Jura on their team, for one. One of ten Wizard Saints of Fiore. Literally one of the toughest guys in the country. Uses rock magic, and he does it well. He was with us when we were fighting the Oración Seis, so I know what a freakin' tank that guy can be."
"Correct." Ultear said. "One they have who I'm sure you're not familiar with is a girl named Shellia Blendy. She's fifteen years old, and reportedly one of the strongest members of the guild at present. We weren't able to determine the exact nature of it, but she uses some form of wind magic."
"Wind magic, huh? If Wendy can get back into the games, I guess that'll be up her alley."
"I believe so. As to the others..." Ultear suddenly trailed off.
The break in conversation stood out prominently, prompting Gray to turn his head to look at her. The mournful expression on Ultear's face and the sadness in her eyes was easy to discern, and Gray figured he knew why.
"Lyon's on the team, right?"
After a beat, Ultear nodded her head solemnly.
"I knew he would be. Lyon Vastia. Twenty-six years old at present, an ice wizard, and like me, a former student of Ur as well. He's pretty strong, but not unbeatable."
"I've never been able to bring myself to go see him. For all these years, I've wanted to go and apologize for how I manipulated and used him at Galuna Island, but no matter how many times I tried, I just couldn't bring myself to face him." Ultear confessed.
She then jerked her head up, seeming to just realize what she'd said and how revealing in nature it was.
"I'm, I'm sorry." She stammered. "I shouldn't have said something so personal. I don't mean to bother you with my issues."
"No, really, it's alright." Gray said. With a serious countenance, he went on to say, "I get it, and I really mean that. I, uh, I normally wouldn't say this to anyone, but the fact is, I still got a lot of pain tied up in my memories of Ur too, ya know? I mean, how could we not? The kind of stuff you and me went through."
Ultear didn't say anything in response, but Gray could see her face relax a bit, and some tension go out of her shoulders.
"But what do you mean 'all these-' wait. That's a dumb question. Tenro Island was seven years ago for you and everyone else. Sorry. I kinda keep forgetting that."
"It's alright. By the way, even though our reunion really took place just a day ago, it's good to see you again." Ultear said.
"Thanks. You too."
As they walked on, an awkward silence descended upon them. The discomfort sat upon them like a heavy blanket that had been soaked through. After two straight blocks of saying nothing, Gray couldn't take it anymore.
"It's a nice night, huh?" He said to break the silence.
Despite the lameness of his delivery of a prosaic statement, Ultear seemed to perk up.
"Yes, it truly is. I love clear nights when you can see all the stars. This one's a tiny bit cloudy, but it's still nice. Did you know there's actually a law that there can only be so much light in the city at night so that the stars won't be washed out?"
"Really? That's pretty cool. I always have kinda liked how Fiore tries to respect nature as best it can, ya know?"
"Yes, I do. Nights like these have always made me happy. On cold clear nights like these, mother and I used to go out and she'd teach me about the constellations."
Gray paused a beat, suddenly feeling himself on uneven ground again. They both had painful memories associated with Ur, but Gray's weren't the type where he'd imagine it would be difficult to even mention her. Ultear had believed for many years that her mother had abandoned her to a life a pain, and then replaced and forgotten about her.
"Um, so, uh, I guess you can talk about her again? I mean, like that, ya know, positively." He stammered.
"Yes, I can, but it hasn't been easy at all. After Tenro Island, I spent several weeks where I was bedridden for most of the day to recover from my injuries. During that time, I thought a lot about my mother. It was difficult, but I finally came to accept that she didn't leave me behind, that it had all been a horrible deception, manipulation, and misunderstanding. It was quite the catharsis, and one I needed at the time with everything else that was going on."
"Oh, yeah? What else was going on? What happened?"
Gray couldn't help but ask the question. He felt compelled to find out what had happened to Ultear after he and the others had become trapped in time.
"Someone had apparently spotted and recognized Grimoire Heart's ship while it had been en route to Tenro and reported it to the magic council. Given what I did to the council while working with Jellal on the Tower of Heaven, they knew who and what I really was. They began a large scale manhunt, which made it difficult for Meldy and I, and-" She cut herself off.
"No, keep going, I want to know."
Ultear turned to glance at him with a mixture of mild surprise and wonderment in her eyes.
"Really?" She asked.
"Yeah. Tell me everything."
"Very well, then. As I said, it wasn't easy. We spent the first four weeks after getting off the island in this small, half collapsed fishing hut we found half a mile inland from where we came ashore. Meldy worked tirelessly to clean and dress my injuries as best she could until I'd finally recovered enough to walk distances.
After that, in the very first town we came to, we saw a wanted poster with my face on it. That came as a shock, because we'd been expecting for the council to think that everyone in Grimoire Heart had died there, but apparently they had some reason to believe I was still alive, and I was their only known connection."
"What'd you guys do?" Gray asked.
"First of all, we needed money more than anything to survive. My first thought had been to find and rob some criminals of their dirty money, but after everything, even though it was the most expedient option, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wanted to start being better for Meldy and, uh, well, we came up with another plan. We dyed our hair, Meldy used makeup to alter the features of her face to be harsher, look older and less recognizable, and I covered half of mine with some gauze. We made our way up into the hills outside of the town where we heard there was a wealthy plantation and made up a story about being sisters who'd been attacked, injured, and abused by highway robbers. We stayed there for four months, living in the servants quarters and working diligently, saving every jewel we were paid. They were nice people, and we might even have stayed, but we soon heard that an official from Fiore's agriculture board would be coming to inspect the plantation, and we didn't want to take any chances."
"What'd you do next?"
"We really weren't sure what to do. We were criminals and fugitives in Fiore, and as odd as it may sound, we didn't want to run away from what we'd done, but turning ourselves in wasn't an option either, because we honestly needed each other. For years, Meldy and I just wandered from place to place, trying to stay under the radar and not cause trouble. We weren't always successful at that. There was an occasional run-in with members from a dark guild or squads of the custody enforcement unit, but with Meldy's magic making it so they all felt the same thing, and my arc of time and crystal ball, we could knock just one person off his feet and disorient all of them for long enough to escape."
"Ha! That's pretty clever. I'm impressed." Gray said jovially.
Ultear's cheeks tinged the slightest amount.
"So, what about Crime Sorcière? How'd that start?"
"It actually began in sort of a roundabout way. It was about three years after you disappeared. We were low on money at the time, and we happened to overhear a story about a bounty hunter who wasn't associated with any guilds making over two-hundred-thousand by bringing in some fugitives." Ultear said.
"Wait a minute. It wasn't-"
Ultear smiled pleasantly. "No. As far as we know, they weren't talking about your friend. But, it gave us the idea, and like I said, our financial reserves were low. So, we found a freelance office and took the highest paying bounty job we could. Some of them don't always require you to hand the captives over to the Custody Enforcement Unit, so we made sure to pick one like that."
"Wait, how does that work?"
"Some criminals have multiple offenses, so they're wanted on multiple jobs. In those cases, you first bring them back to the office where you claimed the job so that office can relay to others and the wizard guilds to deactivate any jobs which would pursue the same criminals."
"Oh, I get it." Gray said.
"So, we took the job, tracked down the criminals, and they turned out to be wizards. They were attempting to start their very own dark guild and were bullying this one town while trying to recruit any young wizards at the same time, sort of trying to traumatize them to make them feel dependent, if you understand. We dealt with them, and the battle became quite intense. There was a little damage done to the town, but nothing quite to the level Fairy Tail might have accomplished." She said cheekily.
Gray couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Yeah, alright, ya got me there. So, then what happened?"
"Once we had the seal-stones on them, a crowd began to gather around us. They were the townspeople, and all older than us, but not very much. We thought they might try to free our prisoners, but instead, they started to softly cheer and thank us. Not like a parade or anything over the top, but just earnestly thanking us for stopping the wizards. It turned out the crowd were mostly the parents of the younger people in town, and they were just so relieved that their children would be safe and not be corrupted by the criminals. Even though it was really very low-key, it was still overwhelming and eye-opening for me and Meldy. We talked about it after we turned them in, and decided it was time that we started to try and make up for the mistakes we'd made."
"And that's how you guys ended up busting Jellal out." Gray observed.
She nodded.
"It seemed like the natural place to start, given what I'd done to Jellal. I felt like I not only owed him his freedom, but the chance to make his own choices again as well."
Gray suddenly stopped walking and turned his body to face Ultear head on. She mimicked his action, but with a confused look at Gray's serious bearing.
Without a stitch of self-consciousness, Gray said, "Ur would be proud of you."
Ultear instantly reddened in her face just a little more.
She said, "Listen, I appreciate the sentiment, but-"
"No, I mean it!" Gray interrupted her sternly. "As long as I knew her, Ur believed in two things above all else; hard work, and facing your problems head on. If she were here, than she'd be proud of you for just not quitting and trying to give something back for everything you've done. I know it, just as well as I know anything else."
Ultear looked up at him, and they shared several long seconds of eye contact where she seemed to struggle with an inner disbelief, but also looked as if she were grateful, and even happy. After more than five seconds of looking at each other, Gray started to become antsy, and he looked away, rubbing the back of his head oafishly.
"But, hey, you know, it wouldn't just be her. I mean, I, uh, I also think it's good how you've turned things around. You know, it's, well, pretty cool."
These words caused the ice wizard's heart to start beating even faster, so he tried to change the subject back to the matter of a second before to avoid talking about himself.
Gray said, "But, I really do mean what I said. Ur would be proud. She never forgot about you. She talked about you all the time."
"Really?"
"I wouldn't lie about this. I remember this one time that since mine and Lyon's birthdays were so close together, and Ur didn't really have the money to do two parties pretty much right on top of each other, she gave us this huge combined birthday feast. She made us a ton of stuff that were all our favorite foods, way more expensive than was probably affordable for us, but she said the dessert was gonna be a surprise. When it finally came to that, it was this huge chocolate sheet cake with the layers stuck together with caramel icing, and white chocolate icing spread over the top."
Ultear gave a tiny gasp of an intake of breath.
"What? But, she always..."
"Yeah, she told us. Told us that she always made it from scratch for her daughter on her birthday. She even mimed the kind of look she said you'd make at it, cracking us up. We ate the cake, and it was seriously the best cake I've ever had in my life. As we were eating it, I happened to look at Ur, and she was smiling, but I could see how sad she was too. Not hard to guess she must have been thinking of you."
Ultear smiled broadly at him just as beads of moisture began to form at the corners of her eyes. She blinked rapidly to try and stop her tears without making it noticeable.
"Thank you for telling me that." She said with a slight quiver in her voice.
"Yeah, well, I just... thought you should know."
Turning to face forward, Gray and Ultear had to stop themselves from walking right into a chain hanging between wooden posts. The two of them had wandered into a large plaza. There was a restaurant on one side of the plaza, a pastry shop facing it directly opposite, and it contained an especially large flower bed in the middle as the center piece.
"Huh. Guess we haven't been paying attention where we've been headed. Don't think I saw this one earlier." Gray said.
Just then, a small group of clouds which had been blocking the moon rolled aside, allowing the full light of the three-quarters moon to shine down upon them. As the moonlight gently illuminated the plaza, something happened. All of the flowers within the bed began to bloom, opening their petals with the most delicate grace, creating a sensation as if the slightest wind could eliminate their fragile beauty. Every petal of every flower than began to glow, emanating a soft, teal-white light, while additional specks of yellow light began to rise from each of them. The effect was that of an ephemeral, transcendental occurrence.
"What are these?" Ultear asked.
There was awe in her voice and a gleeful wonder in her eyes. To answer her question, Gray took a step to the right and read from the information plaque.
"'Lunar Orchids. These rare flowers grow only in Fiore. They bloom only during the summer months, and only at night, absorbing ether-nano from the ground which reacts to moonlight. While blooming, they release seed spores to be borne by the wind, although, these seeds are highly delicate, resulting in very little propagation. While they bloom from the waxing gibbous moon until it enters the waning cycle, their greatest beauty can only be seen under the full moon at its peak.' I guess that's why there's no one here right now." Gray said.
"They're so amazing!" Ultear gasped.
She then succumbed to an unexpected impulse. She looked around, checking to make sure it was really just them, and then she stepped right over the chain separating the pavement from the flower bed.
"Ultear, hey! What are you..."
Gray's objection died on his lips as he watched her moving among the flowers. She weaved in between the Lunar Orchids, dancing gracefully, frolicking like a child might do on a sunny day in an open field. There was a definitively childlike smile of contented abandon on her face, and the way the teal-white light was radiating against her dark purple hair and lighting her pale skin was one of the most ethereal scenes Gray had ever witnessed. Ultear turned and gave the most charming, purely happy smile.
Gray thought to himself, "Whoa, she... she really looks good. I don't get it. Did she look this good back on Tenro? Has she always been this beautiful?"
OOO
After Ultear had finished enjoying herself amongst the flowers, they'd walked back in the direction of the Honeybone Inn. She finished telling him about the other guilds that they'd be competing against in the games, as well as some specific points and other things she thought that Gray should stress to his team. They stood outside the inn, making their goodbyes for the evening.
"So, uh, thanks for all the info. I'll make sure everyone takes a good look at it in the morning, even though I'm sure I'll have to hammer it into Natsu's skull with an ice-pick." He said.
"You're the ones taking the risk by doing this favor for us, so it's the least we can do. Also, I'd, well..." Ultear's cheeks blushed the faintest possible red for a moment, but then returned to normal as she looked into Gray's eyes. "I wanted to thank you for what you told me. That memory you shared with me about my mother, well, it really means something to me."
Gray grew flustered, uncomfortably shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"Well, yeah, uh, any time. It really wasn't any big deal. I mean, if you ever want to talk about her again, or, you know, if you'd just like to come around and talk, I'd be cool with that." He said while looking away.
Ultear gave a small laugh in response.
"I might just take you up on that, but you should really try to get some sleep for tomorrow, and remember, we'll be watching you in the games."
"Yeah, right. So, night Ultear."
"Goodnight, Gray."
With that, she pulled up the hood of her cloak to hide her face, and turned to leave. Gray couldn't keep himself from watching her as she walked away, noticing and liking the sway of her hips even through the fabric of the cloak.
"Hey, man! Get it together! Why the hell do you keep lookin' at her like that?!" He mentally screamed at himself.
As she was departing, Ultear suddenly stopped and turned to steal a glance back. Gray's face halfway blanched, and he turned desperately, but too late not to have been caught looking. He went upstairs to the team's shared room, and had the hardest time falling asleep of his whole life.
OOO
A/N: Here's another chapter for all of my faithful followers of this story. Hope I didn't shock anyone by getting it out so quickly. I got lucky and managed to get on a roll, with a good dose of more free time and productivity than I usually see. As always, I hope everyone enjoys the story as much as I enjoy writing our beloved Fairy Tail characters, and as always, I'd love to hear any comments or constructive criticisms. See you all in the next one, day one of the official Grand Magic Games!