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October 1st, X778
Lucy could think of nothing but the panic rising in her chest. She could see nothing, but she sure as hell could feel the wall of snow pressing in on her from every angle. Her body ached in a way she'd never experienced before. She kicked, thrashing her body around to try and find a way to free herself. She could care less if she drew a Vhalis to her. At least it would get her some air–
The sky burst into view, accompanied by a loud, triumphant yowl.
"Happy?" laughed Lucy in disbelief, gulping down air. The cat purred in response to his name and began clawing at more snow, trying to get to her. Wiggling, Lucy managed to squeeze her upper body through the hole Happy had created. She clambered out onto the top of the massive amount of snow, where she collapsed, simply trying to catch her breath. "Bringing you…along was…the best idea…Natsu's ever had," she declared between gasps, grinning at Happy. He batted at her nose gently, ears flattened.
Natsu.
Lucy flung herself to her knees, cursing. She scanned the snow around her. "Natsu?!" she yelled, trying to get to her feet. Her knees buckled beneath her. She chose to crawl instead. "Wendy?! Natsu!"
No one answered her cries, and Lucy had to swallow back her fear. Natsu would be okay, though she doubted he'd appreciate being buried in snow. Wendy on the other hand…she was mortal, too, even if she did possess the blood of the wind spirit in her veins.
Lucy hated the tears that burned her eyes. "Right," she whispered, scrubbing her hands down her face. They burned with the cold, even with her gloves on, and Lucy didn't miss the fact that the sun was much lower than it had been when she'd last seen it. "Now isn't the time to panic."
Appreciating that she was at least alive, she did a quick check over. Lucy still had her backpack somehow, though there was a rip in the top of it. She still had her keys, too, sans the Taurus key Natsu had been holding when what she suspected to be an avalanche had hit. She'd lost her hat, unfortunately. Her hood was full of snow that she quickly dumped out. Most importantly, Natsu's diale was still wrapped around her throat. At least she'd not lost that.
Happy butted against her hip, purring, and Lucy stroked him shakily. And, she reminded herself, she had Happy.
She did a quick, cautious look around, trying to find familiar landmarks that might tell her how far down the mountainside she'd been thrown. The trees were thicker in the area she found herself in, and Lucy considered herself lucky that she'd not been impaled on one.
"Okay," said Lucy uncertainly, "let's set up camp for the night, Happy. The sun'll be gone soon, and we won't do ourselves any good if we get ourselves killed because we walked right over a ledge. We'll start looking tomorrow." Not that she'd get any sleep with the terror rooted so heavily in her heart.
Determined to find a decent place to shelter before it got too dark, Lucy dragged herself to her feet. Her knees trembled, threatening to give out again, but this time, Lucy remained upright. "Come on, Happy," she said hoarsely.
With only a cat for company, Lucy set out.
Had Natsu been at his full capabilities, he was fairly certain he'd have incinerated the entire mountain range simply out of rage. As it was, he couldn't reign in the hum that slid between his lips as he finished clawing himself free of the snow that had encased him. Ash and smoke curled around his mouth as he puffed out a breath, taking in his surroundings and shaking snow from his cracked, festering hands.
Night had just fallen by the time he was able to free himself. The sky was mostly dark, though some lingering light spread out to the west. Natsu scowled. That wasn't good news. He'd been trapped longer than he'd thought.
"Lucy!" he shouted, spinning slowly in a circle. "Wendy!"
He listened, but no one answered. His stomach churned. Desperate, he tried again. Again, there was nothing.
It had been a long, long time since Natsu had dealt with an avalanche. The last time he'd seen one had been long before he'd become a god. His mountain town had dwelled deep in the mountains and had been more than aware of the danger regarding the snow that packed itself into high mountain peaks. They'd known even better how dangerous the rumbling warnings of Igneel could be, for more than once they'd triggered the avalanches. Natsu suspected that was what had happened – that they were close enough to Igneel that the unnatural Vhalis had caught his attention, stirring him from his slumber for a moment.
"Damn it," muttered Natsu, raking his hand through his pink hair and wondering how the hell was supposed to track his friends down. Lucy, there was a chance. He'd never been great at tracking his diale at full power, let alone when he was virtually useless, but he stood a chance. Wendy…
The wind spoke to Wendy, but to no one else. Unless Wendy freed herself of the snow and listened to Grandeeney, there was little to no chance he'd find her.
Just for the hell of it, Natsu shouted their names one more time. "LUCY!" he hollered at the top of his lungs. "WENDY!"
A breeze, soft and hardly there, carried the smallest whisper of sound towards him. Natsu whipped around. He didn't stop to consider what it might be. He bolted towards it when the breeze whisked around him again, something he took to be a sign that he was going in the right direction.
He knew who the wind would lead him to.
It took a bit of guessing in the dark and almost running into a tree or two, but Natsu finally heard it clearly: a strangled, horrific caterwaul. He knew that sound. He grinned.
"Charle!" Natsu called, hastily ripping his backpack from his shoulders. He fished out the flashlight Lucy had insisted he carry despite his protests that he didn't need it. He'd never hear the end of it if she found out he'd used it. Once it was in hand and his bag shouldered once more, Natsu waited until he heard the yowl again and began heading in the direction he thought it had come from. The wind helped guide him towards it until at last, nearly invisible against the snow, Natsu spotted something shifting in the darkness.
Only then did Natsu turn his flashlight on, knowing Lucy wouldn't want him to "waste the battery," whatever that meant. A rather pissed off Charle glared back at him from beneath a dead, half-buried pine tree. Once she was confident Natsu had seen her, she darted into the darkness.
"Charle," grumbled Natsu, annoyed. He chased after her. Wendy would be devastated if anything happened to her cat. He frowned when he realized they were following a set of tracks that Charle had likely made earlier, before Natsu had even managed to free himself. Unsure of what they were doing when she stopped dead in her tracks, nearly sending him flat on his face when she knocked his ankles, Natsu huffed, "What are you–"
"H-hello?" stammered a voice he knew well, the word cracking on a sob.
"Wendy?" Natsu shone his flashlight around as Wendy gave a cry of relief. His attention locked onto a crevice in the ground – one he might have easily fallen into had it not been for Charle nearly tripping him. It was no more than six feet long and perhaps two to three feet wide. When Natsu edged closer, shining his flashlight down into it, he found a sniffling, trembling Wendy squinting up at him past the light. Natsu pursed his lips together as he shone his light over the walls of the crevice, ever so cautious of falling in. There was no way she'd have been able to get out on her own. He wouldn't have been able to without help. The walls of the little cavern she'd fallen into were slick with ice and smoothed by age.
"Natsu?" Wendy's voice cracked again.
"Hey," he said, trying to be calmer than he felt. How long had she been stuck down there, thinking no one would find her? He swallowed thickly, considering what he had on him. The ropes they'd kept were in Lucy's bag. He had Taurus's key – how he'd kept it in the avalanche was beyond his knowledge – but Tarus wasn't helpful in this situation. "You hurt anywhere?"
"A little." After a few moments, another light flicked on. Wendy had found her own flashlight. He winced at the way it blinded him for a moment. "I think I cut my leg on something, and my whole body hurts."
Despite the situation, Natsu cracked a small grin. Of course her body would hurt; she'd been run over by a ton of snow. He slid carefully over on his stomach to the edge of the crevice, putting his flashlight away for the time being so he could free his hands. "You're good to walk though?"
"It hurts, but yeah." Wendy pushed herself to her feet, impatiently sweeping her snow-laced blue hair from her face and whipping some tears away. "Can you get me out?"
Natsu reached down cautiously, and Wendy reached up. When she hopped, her fingers barely brushed his. Natsu grimaced, stretching his arm out as far as he could. "Can you jump a little more?"
"I can try!" Wendy considered something, and then shoved her flashlight in the front of her coat to offer some light while simultaneously freeing her own hands. "Can you take my bag?" she checked, waiting for Natsu to agree before tossing it up. He set it beside him and scooted forward just an inch more.
"One," he counted, and Wendy nodded to show she understood what he meant, "two…three!"
On "three," Wendy jumped as high as she could. They both cheered when Natsu managed to snag her wrist. Grunting with effort, Natsu managed to haul Wendy free of the small crevice she'd been trapped in. When she reached the top, she hooked her leg over and helped to pull herself up. Finally free, she scrambled away from the edge and flopped on her back in the snow, gasping for breath.
Natsu couldn't help but laugh when Charle lurched over, purring loudly. She rubbed her face against Wendy's, and Wendy snagged her cat and hugged her tightly to her chest after dumping her flashlight beside her. "You were right, Natsu. Cats are really, really lucky!"
Natsu grinned before rocking to his feet, brushing the snow from his clothes. He eyed the dark sky, heart twisting with fear for Lucy. He wouldn't make Wendy search for her in the dark when there might very well be a Vhalis still on the loose. Wendy was hurt, too, and she needed rest. Besides that, they needed to figure out the best way to search for Lucy. They'd have to stop for the night.
Arms wrapped around him and Natsu admittedly jumped a little, not expecting it. He blinked, realizing that while he'd been busy worrying, Wendy had gotten up and decided to hug him, not caring one bit about the way his skin still flaked off in charred pieces or the way his breath burned her with flecks of embers and ash. "Thank you for pulling me out. I was really scared no one would find me."
Natsu's face softened. Lucy might have been his one and only Favored, but he cared for Wendy, too, and often forgot how young she was. Natsu tucked Wendy beneath his chin and wrapped her in a tight hug, muttering, "Like I'd ever leave you stuck like that."
After a moment, Wendy pulled back, eyes glinting in the light of the flashlight still on the snowy ground. "Can you tell where Lucy is?" she asked, echoing his worries. He shook his head. Wendy, disappointed, bit her lip and shifted her weight onto her good leg. "I hope Lucy's okay."
"She's fine," said Natsu, sounding more confident than he actually felt about it. "She's Luce. We should set up camp and start looking for her when we can actually see, don't you think?" He tweaked Wendy's nose playfully, drawing a huff of exasperation from her as she pulled away. She snagged her flashlight and bag. When Natsu had done the same, he offered Wendy his hand, wiggling his fingers. She took it gratefully and called for Charle.
Together yet alone in the darkness of the mountains, the pair set off to find a place that would shelter them for the night.
Lucy slept about as well as she expected in her little makeshift camp. That is to say, she didn't sleep at all. She was up at first light, hardly feeling rested enough to consider hiking back up an avalanche-stricken mountain on her own, but she didn't think she had much of a choice in the matter.
It was eerie, being alone and not knowing where any of her companions were. It reminded her of the time before Natsu had come into life, though she'd been okay with the loneliness then. Now…she wanted nothing more than to hear Wendy's silly giggling as Charle did something to entertain her and to hear Natsu's endless questions about how something in the modern world had once worked. She wanted to feel the comforting press of Natsu's side to hers whenever he playfully threw an arm around her shoulder or the wind whispering across her skin as it spoke in a language only Wendy could hear.
She missed her friends terribly, just as much as she'd missed them when she'd been locked in a cellar by Kageyama. At least she'd known where they were then. Now…
Happy meowed at her feet and Lucy stopped walking to look down at him. He blinked calmly up at her, tail waving over his back. Her eyes softened. "Come here, Happy," she said softly, scooping him into her arms and hugging him tightly. "I suppose I'm not completely alone, hm?"
Happy purred in agreement and swatted gently at her nose.
Shaking off her negative thoughts since they wouldn't help her, Lucy reached back and yanked her hood up, ensuring she was warm as she'd get, and then continued on her way. Sitting around moping wouldn't get anything done or help her find anyone, after all.
Occasionally, as Lucy walked and the sun climbed higher in the sky, she called out. She was always hesitant to do so. Where there was one Vhalis, there was always more, and whoever the Vhalis they'd been attacked by had been may have had friends with them when they'd passed.
Lucy stopped for a break around noon – mostly because she found she could hardly lift her feet. She was sweating heavily, and she grimaced as she dropped down to sit in the snow. "Hungry, Happy?" she rasped, gasping for air. She fought the urge to remove her coat. She knew enough about how the cold worked to not do that, even if she did feel disgustingly sweaty beneath her warm clothes.
She pulled her gloves off and fed Happy some of the jerky she had left, biting into a piece herself. Silence was broken only by the sounds of chewing and Happy's contented purr. She ruffled his ears, ignoring the bite of the mountain breeze on her fingers. Distantly, she wondered what that breeze might be whispering. When they'd finished their meal, she simply sat there, finding it hard to find the energy to get up and keep walking.
One moment, Lucy was simply resting, catching her breath and noting the temperature that seemed to be dropping the longer she traveled, indicating trouble for a later time.
The next, she was tumbling through the snow, a familiar, piercing scream in her ears. "Damn it!" she cried, flailing to right herself and shoving her hand into her pocket. She came up empty-handed, horrified, and whipped her head around as Happy yowled a warning.
In the brief moment she had before the Vhalis flung itself at her again, she could see two things: those precious keys gleaming in the midday sunlight, shining starkly against the white snow, and that the horrific branch lodged in the Vhalis's body, as if it had been thrown into a branch at some great velocity.
She had no doubt it was the Vhalis from the day before.
Lucy hurtled out of the way, throwing herself towards the keys. She snagged them just as the Vhalis crashed into her again, teeth snapping. She heard its jaws click beside her ear and yelped, grabbing the first key her fingers came in contact with.
Immediately, something shot up between her and the Vhalis, striking the creature in the face. It recoiled with a scream. Aries's shield wasn't necessarily ideal, but it certainly kept the Vhalis off her, even as she found herself shoved further into the snow beneath its weight and the Vhalis. The Vhalis's claws scraped over the metal, screeching.
Lucy couldn't reach another key before the Vhalis slammed its fists against the metal, screaming in outrage. She swallowed, flinching as pain shot through her arms. The effort of holding the weight of the Vhalis and the shield was quickly becoming too much for her still injured arms to handle. Her fingers slid on the slick metal of the shield, which seemed almost cloaked in a level of frost. She could hear Happy's unhelpful yowling, muffled by the snow and Vhalis. Lucy could only gulp down a breath, hardly able to breathe as the shield shoved down against her face and chest.
The Vhalis stilled atop her. Its shriek died in its throat. Lucy's heart thundered in her chest as it raked its talons one more time over the metal before snarling. The weight vanished from the top of the shield protecting her.
Lucy didn't dare move. The second she moved that shield, the Vhalis would be waiting. But…why wasn't it digging and prying through the snow to get at her? Why wasn't it–
A sharp knock on the shield made her choke on a gasp. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
"You can come out now, Lucy. It's gone. Naturally."
Lucy didn't move for a few moments, simply gulping down air. Slowly, she shifted the shield, just enough that she could peek over the top of it. Her eyes rounded with shock. "Gray?" she said breathlessly.
He was crouched in the snow beside her, wearing a heavy, fur-lined coat. He snickered at the look on her face, though there was some concern in his own. He offered a hand, and after willing the shield into a key and tucking it and the other keys into her pocket, she took it gratefully. She hardly noticed the way his black, frostbitten fingers bit at her own. "I don't think I've ever been as happy to see someone as I am right now," she said honestly, voice hoarse.
Gray's smile widened as he pulled her to her feet. "I heard the worst sound I've ever heard. I thought whoever was making it might need some help. Ended up coming across a cat and found you in the process. Didn't expect that, I have to admit."
Lucy opened her mouth to respond, only for Happy to hurtle into her legs with a yowl. Lucy scooped him up and hugged him tightly. "You must have heard Happy," she laughed. The sound Happy had made had been rather horrible. She kissed Happy's furry head, grateful yet again for him.
Gray wrinkled his nose. "When did you get a cat?"
Lucy shrugged. "A while ago. We have two, actually."
Gray eyed Happy with some disgust; Happy merely blinked back at him. A week ago, Lucy might have sided with Gray. She was more than happy to side with Happy now. "Where's Natsu?" Gray asked, changing the subject. He indicated the scarf wrapped around Lucy's neck. "Can't be far if you're still wearing that."
Lucy's smile faded. "I don't know," she admitted. "I think it was an avalanche. I've been looking for him and Wendy all day. I don't know where they went."
Gray ran a hand through his hair and sprinkled her with ice shards. "You three–" he began, exasperated.
"Yeah, yeah, we know, trust me." Lucy waved him off. "Can you help me find them? Please? I'm really, really worried about Wendy. She's not entirely human, but she's mortal enough. And Natsu's…Natsu. I want to find them as soon as possible."
Gray's lips quirked. "I didn't say I was hanging around, Lucy." She shot him a nasty look, just daring him to say he wouldn't help her, and Gray held his hands up. "Joking, joking. I'll help you find them. It's the least I can do."
Lucy whirled away, relieved. "Well, come on then," she said. "Let's go find Natsu and Wendy. Oh!" She flashed him a sincere, grateful smile. "Thanks. For helping me, by the way. I'd have been toast if you hadn't happened to have shown up." She stooped to set Happy down and grab her discarded gloves, still lying in the snow following her earlier snack. Too busy pulling them onto her hands, she missed the flash of guilt that shot across Gray's face when she asked, "What are you doing around here anyways?" She glanced at him.
Gray had shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat, shrugging. "There was a mass casualty," was all he said, and Lucy didn't need to ask more. She knew where he'd been recently – and she wondered just how many of those souls would face judgement, if Gray had managed to coerce them into Hel. Or did they now run free as Vhalis, destroying just as many lives as they had when they were alive?
Knowing her luck, she'd not seen the last of those souls.
Gray's back! It took me a long time to figure out how he was going to come back in. Some fun stuff's happening~
We hit one year of Starfall this last week! Thank you all for sticking around this long! I'm not sure if we'll make another year (with my ability to write short fics, we probably will), but still. Thank you all. :)
Thanks to reviewers (InWonderl4nd, WAAHHH, marn-marn, hopelesskar, BurstingDragons, nerdalertwarning, and happy966!) as well as those who favorited and followed!