August 1st, x777
Wendy had to be quiet.
Hehe...
She didn't want to give away her hiding spot.
He'll never find me.
Wendy smiled silently from her hiding spot in the bushes in the depths of the woods. Her eyes were wide and searching, keeping her breathing low as she tried to listen for any signs of Jellal in the forests around her. It was a task that was a teensy bit difficult because Jellal made as much noise as an ant on a bad day.
How am I going to find him...
Wendy hummed at the thought, her mental gears turning as she tried to figure out how to win their two-sided hide-and-seek game. The only rule was that the first person found was the loser, so if Wendy wanted to win, she had to try to sneak up on Jellal. A task she had succeeded in a total of zero times so far, even though they had played it many times over a couple of weeks.
Maybe if I peek-
Wendy stiffened as she heard the faint sound of leaves rustling, her eyes flicking toward the depths of the woods where it came from. The sound was too heavy to be a squirrel and too loud to be a mistake; that meant Jellal was trying to bait her into leaving her hiding spot.
I'm not falling for that... again.
Wendy silently huffed as she heard the rustle once again from the woods. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out how to sneak up on Jellal without giving herself away.
He'll catch me if I search normally.
Wendy's only advantage was that Jellal needed to find out where she was. If she went to the sound looking for Jellal, she would be caught first; that was what he did the last time they played this game. Jellal baited her out to look for him. Then he caught her while she searched aimlessly; she had to try something different this time.
How else can I find him, though...
Jellal was weird; he was naturally silent, even to her heightened senses. He didn't have the presence that most mages, no most people in general, had; she didn't know how to find him when none of her dragon slayer senses...
Oh...
Well, she had yet to try one of them.
No... that's so embarrassing!
Wendy didn't want to be rude and tell Jellal that she smelled him to find him; that would sound weird, and then he might think she was trying to tell him he smelled nasty, which wasn't true! Jellal didn't smell bad; he smelled like apples.
Red apples, in particular.
Oh no... It worked.
Wendy squirmed in silent embarrassment and sniffed the air with red-tinged ears; she kept her steps super quiet like Jellal had taught her to do as she escaped her hiding bush. Climbing a nearby tree, she slowly and carefully jumped from branch to branch; the process took ages, but eventually, she arrived at the other side of the tree where the smell was coming from. The scent of red apples was just on the other side of the tree trunk she was behind.
Found him!
Wendy smiled, beaming with pride as she jumped to the other side of the tree with a triumphant yell. Only to pause in her glory as she saw a lonely staff leaning against the tree with an apple hanging from a stray branch right above it, "What?"
Wendy didn't understand; she was sure she had smelled-
"Nice try, Wendy."
"Eep!"
Wendy yelped as a voice sounded behind her, and she nearly tumbled off the branch; her fall stopped as a gloved hand, gentle but firm, grabbed her leg and pulled her back up. Wendy pouted as she saw Jellal standing before her with a slight smirk. His voice was a mixture of quiet teasing and gentle laughter, "Want to try again?"
One day, Wendy would be the one to find Jellal.
"Yes!"
She would just have to keep trying.
July 14th, x778
It was a fantastic morning in Cait Shelter.
A mission...
The forests thrummed with animals and insects, and the rivers rushed with schools of fish and wildlife. Serenity was the picture in the woods around the reclusive guild, and no one knew it better than Wendy.
My first mission...
She sat quietly by the riverside, watching the fish swim as she tried to prepare herself for her first mission. Tonight, her first real mission with Siegrain was to exterminate a nest of Elachies on the outskirts of the vast forests near Devi. It would be a long walk to get to the area, a few hours at the very least, so she had to take this time to prepare herself before they started trekking.
It's my first mission...
Wendy had to stay calm...
I'm doomed.
Wendy was failing miserably, just like she would probably fail the mission. She was clumsy and hadn't used her magic to fight things before; the most she'd ever done was use it to help the other guild members catch fish.
What am I going to do...
Wendy didn't know how to do a mission, much less successfully. She didn't want to mess up; she definitely didn't want to mess up in front of Siegrain, who was already going out of his way to help her learn the ropes of a light mage.
What if I-
"BOO!"
Wendy's depressing thoughts died as she shrieked and tumbled into the shallow water of the river. Her splash scared the school of fish away, and the surroundings echoed with the aged laughter that erupted from the one who had given her such a fright. Raubol, her guild master, watched with loud chuckles as Wendy stood up and shook the water out of her hair with a slight whine, "Mr. Raubol..."
The fish are all gone...
Wendy looked downtrodden at the fish that had moved downriver; her stupor halted as Raubol commented, with a slight grin, "Oh, come now, Wendy. The fish couldn't stay there forever."
Everything has to move on eventually...
Raubol watched sympathetically as he saw Wendy deflate a little more. He got a bright idea as he sat at the river's edge and waited for Wendy's gaze to move away from him so he could conjure up a few more fake fish to swim around her feet. Raubol watched with a small smile as Wendy beamed at the sight and tried to stay incredibly still so she wouldn't scare them off.
"Mr. Raubol, look! They came back!"
"I see that, Wendy."
Raubol said with a slight laugh as he watched Wendy try to get herself to shore slowly. Her movements were prolonged so that even real fish might have mistaken her for a part of the river. Still, she eventually reached the river's edge and pulled herself up next to Raubol, who tapped her on the head with his old cane, "You know most people who go through the trouble to get close to fish catch them."
"But I don't want to catch them unless I have to," Wendy said with a slight grin as she dipped her toes into the water, letting the fish nibble at them before they went downstream. Wendy giggled as she mumbled cheerfully.
"We aren't eating fish tonight."
"Ah yes, I forgot about that little detail. A shame."
"Mr. Raubol..."
"Kidding."
Raubol teased with a slight grin, nudging Wendy's elbow with his own as the little girl giggled. Wendy's laughs died down as Raubol tapped his cane on the crown of her head and asked with a knowing expression, "So little Wendy, are you ready for your first mission? You and Siegrain will probably have to leave soon if you don't want to make it on time."
Devi is far from close...
Raubol watched as Wendy's cheerful gaze turned downtrodden and back towards the river. Her voice was small as she mumbled into her knees, "Yeah..."
The mission...
Wendy stewed in her depressing thoughts as she watched her reflection on the water's surface. Her mouth moved before she realized it, and she asked Raubol with a slight murmur, "Do you think I'll do well on the mission?"
"Probably not."
Raubol replied without hesitation, crushing Wendy's spirits and hopes in one fell swoop. Raubol chuckled as he tapped her head with his cane and then tapped her reflection on the water, letting the ripples spread and disperse her thoughts, "But that's fine, isn't it."
Wendy watched in a small wonder as the ripples spread and changed, turning to butterflies that fluttered into the air. Their flapping wings echoed Raubol's old and comprehensive voice, "I had to have a lifetime of failures before I got this good with my magic."
Wendy blinked through the cloud of butterflies and gaped at Raubol, who was playing with the illusions of butterflies he had created. His childish delight was etched into every syllable of his words: "A failed mission or two won't stop you."
It'll only prepare you for the next one.
Raubol smiled warmly as he glanced at Wendy, watching as she nodded slowly and kept her gaze on the small butterflies fluttering around her. A second, maybe more critical thought escaped her lips as she raised a gentle hand to the butterfly and watched it land with gentle steps, "I don't want to fail Siegrain, though..."
Wendy wanted to be something other than a deadweight on her first mission.
"I don't want to slow him-"
"I'm sure you won't."
Raubol spoke confidently, smirking as Wendy looked at him with wide eyes. Raubol shrugged as he snapped his fingers, and the butterflies flew away, leaving the two silent by the riverside.
"Even if you choose not to fight, you won't hinder him."
Raubol was certain Wendy had more power in her heart than she realized, and he was sure Siegrain recognized it, too.
"You just have to help him in your own way."
They could wait a little while until Wendy realized it herself.
Siegrain wouldn't say he was ready to leave Cait Shelter for the mission; that would be rude.
"Make sure Wendy gets her food."
"She's scared of thunderstorms, so be careful."
"She gets spooked easily."
"She's clumsy too, so don't let her trip."
"She's also bad at directions so that she might get lost."
Then again, half the village population was encircling him, voicing their concerns about his mission, and it was getting a little annoying. He would've stayed in Oak Town with the reporters if he wanted to be surrounded by a crowd.
I get that they care about Wendy, but this feels excessive...
Siegrain frowned at the thought, watching with renewed hope as Qecha cut into the crowd with an annoyed and frustrated groan, "Could you idiots leave the kid alone!? He's a Phantom Lord Mage; he knows what he's doing!"
Siegrain watched with a raised eyebrow as the crowd of worrisome guild members turned towards Qecha. Siegrain honestly had to bite back a laugh as their barrage of comments changed targets with almost comical ease.
"Time to leave everyone, party's over."
"Qecha's back."
"The buzzkill's here."
"Get out of here, you pests!"
Qecha roared with indignant fury, watching with twitching eyes as the crowd dispersed with a mixture of laughter and chuckles. The clearing in front of Cait Shelter's guild hall was now quiet.
Finally...
Qecha took a deep breath as he bathed in the silence now that his nosey guildmates had finally left.
Even after centuries, they still like to gossip.
Qecha sighed and shook his head, turning his attention to Siegrain, who stood by with a forcefully blank expression. Siegrain did his best not to laugh as he nodded stiffly at his savior, "Thank you for the help."
"Don't mention it," Qecha said with an off-handed shrug, frowning as he shook off the feeling that someone was laughing at him before turning to Siegrain. Who was watching with a blank face as Qecha spoke with a sincere request, "I know you're probably tired of hearing this, but..."
Qecha glanced over Siegrain's shoulders, smiling softly as he saw Wendy and Raubol escaping the woods. Qecha figured that meant Siegrain and Wendy would have to go soon, so he kept his message short and sweet, voicing what he and the other villagers were most concerned about.
"Please take care of Wendy."
To the guild of Cait Shelter, the only living member was a joy beyond belief. Having her go on her first mission, with an outsider no less, was bound to cause stress to the villagers.
"We would be distraught without her."
Qecha was no exception.
"I know..."
Siegrain replied swiftly, watching as Wendy ran up with a smile with Raubol hot on her heels. The two laughed and smiled as Siegrain muttered one last thing to Qecha before meeting the two children and getting ready to leave Cait Shelter.
"I will."
Siegrain had no plans of letting Wendy get hurt on his watch.
Hours later*
Wendy had a bruise on her knee from tripping on a stray root hidden by the dark cover of night and a small cut on her elbow from when she hit the dirt.
How...
Siegrain looked away for two seconds, and in his defense, he caught her the other three times she almost fell. He just wasn't quick enough to catch her this time; maybe it was inevitable.
How is she this clumsy?
It was impressive if he was being honest; Siegrain had never seen anyone with as little muscle coordination as Wendy. Even with the moonlight guiding them, she managed to trip on every stray obstacle.
Should I wrap her in threads so she can't trip?
Siegrian mulled over the idea while Wendy sat on the ground and pouted at her new injuries. Siegrain would be lying if he said the idea was tempting; carrying Wendy around in a trip-proof cocoon could have been inconvenient, but it was doable. He had already reached the fifty percent mark on whether to go through with it before a slight rusting sound prickled his ears.
We're being watched...
Siegrain narrowed his eyes at the nearby shrubbery, letting the moonlight guide his vision as he spotted a few streaks slithering through the dense forestry. Siegrain took a hand and pulled Wendy to her feet as she sniffled and asked with an unaware and confused look, "Siegrain, what's-"
"Listen."
Siegrain watched his words settle in Wendy's ears, her earlier confusion melting away as she closed her eyes and listened. Her dragon slayer senses worked quicker than Siegrain's regular ones as she flicked her head towards the left and opened her eyes to see the dark outlines of three snakes, maybe the size of her arm, slithering away from them and into the quiet forest.
'Sizzle'
With a few acidic scales left behind in their wake.
"Were those the Elachies?"
Wendy asked as Siegrain walked towards the small trail the snakes had left into the dense overgrowth. Tilting his head back at Wendy as he kicked a purple acidic scale out of the way, he said, "Yeah, they are. Those were small ones, though, probably just hatched."
The older ones will be at the nest.
Siegrain hummed as he turned to Wendy, who tapped the scale curiously with her sandals before backing away. Her eyes were wide with curiosity and worry as the scales singed the edges of her shoes from just a touch. She was unable to stop the slight and downcast murmur that escaped her lips as she thought of how small the snakes were.
"They're young..."
"They are," Siegrain said plainly, ignoring Wendy's downcast gaze as he lifted her and placed her on his back, ignoring her yelp of protest and confusion as he darted after the snakes. Talking to Wendy as he traversed through the dense jungle, "Do you want to kill any of them?"
Siegrain wouldn't force Wendy into combat if she wasn't ready. He had only brought her to observe and, if she wanted to, to fight a bit where it was comfortable.
"I don't know..."
Siegrain was pretty sure her sad little mumble counted as not comfortable.
"That's fine; you don't have to."
Siegrain said with an offhand shrug, jumping over a downed log and skating down a small hill.
I'll just kill them myself.
Siegrain hummed at the thought while keeping his eyes trained on the slope ahead. His ears quirked as he heard Wendy's slight murmur, "But I still want to help..."
Siegrain blinked in surprise as he felt his body get a bit lighter, a bit stronger. His muscles glowed faintly green, and he was sure his senses tingled with a new sensation.
"Sky Dragon Slayer Magic"
Siegrain felt fast.
"Vernier"
Siegrain glanced back at Wendy, whose eyes drooped from using her support magic. Wendy mumbled into his shoulder as she took a little nap to sleep off the spell she had used.
"I want... to... help..."
Siegrain watched as Wendy drifted off, her soft snores echoing through the quiet forest. An uncharacteristically wide grin etched on Siegrain's face as he tensed his legs. A feeling of weightlessness hit him as he sprinted through the woods at an utterly liberating speed.
"Thanks, Wendy."
Siegrain used his threads to tie Wendy to his back, leaving his hands free as he caught up with the snakes who had slithered to the edge of a cliff. Siegrain barely gave the hatchlings a second glance as he jumped over the cliff's edge and plummeted in a free fall. His threads roared and writhed with the wind as he spotted the nest of thirty Elachies slumbering in a snake pit at the ground hundreds of meters below. In a small crater that had probably been leftover from a fallen boulder or ancient meteor.
"You did good."
Siegrain almost felt bad that he would be ruining their rest.
"Thread Make"
Siegrain felt the wind whip at his hair as his threads compounded themselves. His eyes narrowed on the biggest one, the size of a horse, curled up in the bullseye of the crater, its head slumbering soundly like a bullseye.
"Javelin"
Siegrain formed a large dual-bladed pick, almost twice his size, and launched it at the center of the crater of snakes. Watching with a hawk-like gaze, the spear pierced the snake's brain like butter and cracked the ground beneath it. This startled the other snakes, who rushed to escape the pit their mother had been slaughtered in.
"No, you don't..."
Siegrain muttered with cold eyes, his muscles moving on memory as he formed a threaded bow in his hands. His fall stopped dead as the spell Wendy had cast assisted him and let him remain floating in the air as he lined up multiple threaded arrows in his bow.
"Wendy worked too hard for any of you to escape."
Siegrain didn't hesitate to fire, littering the night forest with the sound of falling arrows and the screams of dying snakes.
Half an hour later, Wendy woke up, her eyes fluttering open to the dark forests and a view over Siegrain's shoulder.
What happened...
Blinking and looking around confused, Wendy didn't see any Elachies. Only trees and dirt trails are highlighted by the moonlight inching their way towards the center of the sky. Wendy looked around groggily, stiffening in surprise as she heard Siegrain's comment.
"The Elachies are all gone, Wendy. I would've woken you, but a storm's coming."
I don't want to be out when it starts thundering.
Siegrain glanced briefly at the darkening clouds behind, their ominous winds blowing as he ran towards Devi. The speed boost from Vernier long faded, but his muscles were still in good enough condition to book it to Devi with Wendy still on his back.
"Thanks for the spell, Wendy."
His body was actually in an excellent condition.
"You helped me a lot back there."
Siegrain let his words pass as Wendy soaked them in, her lip quivering as she nodded into Siegrain's shoulder. Now fully awake, she mumbled with a small smile, "I'm glad..."
Wendy had been helpful.
"I'm glad I could help-"
Wendy's words stalled as she heard a strike of lightning that echoed through the quiet forests. Her eyes were wide as she glanced behind them and saw the dark clouds responsible, the winds carrying a scene of nature's wrath for miles on end. Wendy could smell the burnt wood, static, and rain accompanying the storm in the distance, with thunderclouds that looked like they were converging over a specific section of the forest.
"Siegrain..."
No, it didn't look like they were converging; they were converging. They were spiraling in the sky like a giant whirlpool, lightning flashing off their wings every few seconds with echoing strikes.
"The skies are acting strange."
Wendy's words barely reached Siegrain's ears as a sudden rainfall hit them from behind, carried by the winds rolling off the storm at their backs. Siegrain could only focus on getting farther from the storm at their backs and to safety, with Wendy's slight murmuring blending in with the sound of a natural disaster that lingered behind them.
"The air smells weird too..."
Siegrain had to keep his feet moving before they got caught in the storm.
"It smells like apples... it smells like..."
Siegrain was thankful the wind was to their backs. If the storm chose to move their way, it wouldn't catch them in time; Devi was less than an hour away. If the wind had been against them, he wouldn't be fast enough to outrun it and make it to Devi in time-
"Jellal?"
Siegrain's eyes went wide, and his feet stopped instantly, his head flicking back to Wendy, who had her eyes dead on the storm in the distance—a fraction of a second passed as she sniffed the incoming wind that had blown for miles and spoke again with a voice that was anything but small.
"He's here."
It was a voice littered with hope and fear yet held a steadfast determination—one so strong that she broke out of her little shell on Siegrain's back instantly, much to Siegrain's dismay.
"Wait, Wendy-"
"Sky Dragon Slayer Magic"
Wendy didn't hear Siegrain's words as she used her magic. She only felt a slight drowsiness since it was easier to use it on herself, and it allowed her to avoid Siegrain's wild grasp to try and stop her from charging toward the storm.
"Vernier"
Wendy felt Siegrain's finger graze the back of her dress as she shot off into the woods and left him behind. Her speed vastly increased as she floated inches off the ground, barreled through the wind and rain, and only focused on getting to the storm raging in the distance. Its dark and dense clouds nearly blotted out the moonlit sky as it circled a point in the forest like a giant eye in the sky. Wendy was making a beeline for that point, her voice buried in the incoming winds.
"WAIT!"
Wendy shouted desperately into the winds, knowing her words wouldn't reach but having to try anyway. Her eyes squinted as she braced the stinging raindrops and harsh winds. Her eyes never left the storm, and her nose never let go of his scent tinged with the incoming air current.
"PLEASE DON'T GO!"
She could smell it; he was close, but he never stayed in one place for long.
"DON'T LEAVE!"
She might not get another chance.
"JELLAL!"
Wendy might not get another chance to find her Jellal.
In the thick of the woods near the forests on the outskirts of Devi, where the storm in the distance was more a lousy omen than an actual threat, one person with better ears than most perked up from his slumber. Ignoring his two fellow guild members slumbering next to him, he stood up and glanced at the storm with a slight grin etched onto his lips.
"Oh?"
Cobra had just heard something interesting.
"You hear that, Coballios..."
Cobra turned to his snake, his friend, nestled on his neck like a scarf. Coballios turned to him with a slight flick of its forked tongue. The purple snake's eyes narrowed in accord with Cobra's, and if he could hear his best friend's voice like he one day wished to, he was sure it would match his.
"That bastard is here."
Poison would have been etched into every word.