Sorry Elise. I say this because you have really only one thing going for you right now.
Enjoy!
Elise's wake up call was a bucket of ice water. She sputtered and flailed wildly in surprise, unsure just what had happened. Once she'd managed to sit up and spit out the water attempting to trickle into her lungs and kill her, she moved her bangs out of her eyes and looked up.
Her father stood there with an empty bucket and a smirk.
"Again?" She asked weakly. "Can't you just shake me awake?"
"Just adjust to the shock, part of your training." He replied, as if everyone poured buckets of ice water on their daughter to wake them.
"Ugh..." Elise fell backwards and landed in her cot. Judging from the lack of sunlight outside her tent, it was before dawn. She honestly should have expected the ice water, it was one of her fathers ways to make her get up early. She never did so normally, so obviously getting up with a shock would be best right?
Elise figured anyone who answered with yes would be clinically insane.
"Get up," He said gruffly, kicking her side. "We should stat soon."
"With what?" She asked with a yawn.
"I don't know, probably your endurance." Just thinking about that made Elise want to die.
"Mmmm, sounds good." She slowly pulled her blankets back over her head and nestled into her pillow. "But I think we should start with, like, five more hours of sleep..." Elise did not hear a reply, so she smiled to herself and slowly started to drift off to sleep.
Until her body left the ground and she was slung over her fathers shoulder.
"Gah!" She shouted in surprise, startled by the change in her equilibrium. "Put me down, Dad!"
"Not a chance." he replied sternly. "You want to enter the Games? You have to work for it."
"Yeah but..." Elise, despite her position, felt herself drifting off again. "I'm so sleepy..."
"And?"
"Daddddyyyy..." Elise moaned weakly, but he didn't even skip a beat. "Ugh, whatever..." And with this, Elise went back to sleep.
Elise had her head propped up on her arm, which was leaning on her fathers back, as he carried her up a hill.
"Are we there yet?" She asked.
"Almost." he replied. "Just let me..." he slammed an iron club into a rick face next to them, sending it over their pathway back. At this point the sun was coming up, which had forced Elise from her nap rather unhappy. "Alright, we should be just about done." he then carried her to the crest of the hill, put her down, and turned to observe the are they'd come from.
"Now what?" Elise asked, clearing the sleep from her eyes.
"Now you go back." He replied. Elise made a face.
"Huh? But you spent all that time getting me up here. How long was I out for anyway?"
"Maybe two hours." he said. "But that's the point."
"How is that the point?" He turned to her with a grin.
"If you can get down back to base camp in, say, around fifteen minutes, you passed. If not, you come back up and try again." Elise stared at her father like he'd lost one of the iron bolts in his face that presumably kept in on straight.
"How am I supposed to do that?" She demanded. "I don't even know how you got me up here!"
"Figure it out." he said, stretching. Elise grumbled insults under her breath at this and looked out towards the smoke that was base camp. it didn't seem far in contrast to her sprint across Tenrou, but it was still a lot. She stretched her legs and upper body with her father.
"Wait, what are you doing?" She asked as he cracked his back. He grinned.
"What do you think is going to try and stop you?" he asked. The threatening tone compared with wolfish grin made Elise's blood run cold.
"U-Uh...what do you...?"
"Better start running, kid." Elise slowly turned and looked down the path in which she'd come from, pretending to observe it.
She then bolted.
With the sounds of maniacal laughter coming from behind her spurring her to run, Elise tore down the rick path back into the forested area. Once she reached the rock wall her father had collapsed, now obviously set as an obstacle, She vaulted it in one go and continued sprinting. Elise, despite her rather small stature compared too the others, was rather fast. And she was proud of that.
Cause, you know, she was short. It was impressive.
Regardless, Elise had gotten to the edge of the forest only to have an iron spear pierce the tree next to her. She stared at it in surprise before another one struck the ground near her foot, and she gulped. Another one landed right where she'd been standing as she finally moved, hiding under the foliage of the tree's.
"You can run, kid, but you can't hide!" She heard. Rolling her eyes despite the adrenaline going through her system, Elise darted in and out of the trees. She soon came across her next obstacle, which was a wall of cut down trees. using the momentum from her running, she jumped and slammed a club into the center, knocking them loose of their precarious placement and sent them everywhere. Elise laughed triumphantly as she went to land.
Right on a log, slipping and landing on her ass.
"Fuck..." She hissed, rubbing the back of her head, which she'd slammed on the ground. "Ugh, that hurts..." She felt rather dizzy from the accident, but she tried to get up, which only made her stumble. "How am I supposed to run when I'm so dizzy?" She asked no one in particular. "I guess I should go..." Elise turned towards the smell of food, and was about to run when a tree flew past her and blocked her way. She turned just in time to dodge another wooden projectile by ducking, which also landed in her path. Her father appeared from where the tress had come from, Aiming his arm at her. It turned into a club and flew at Elise, who ducked under it and turned, leaping over the trees and continuing on her way. She did so until the club slammed into her back, sending her flying forward and almost onto her face. She stumbled wildly, did a strange little twirl, but managed to stay on her feet.
She then tripped on a tree root and then landed on her face.
"Damn!" She shouted, feeling blood gush from her nose. She squeezed her nose with her hand, which made much of the blood fall on her hands and pants as she knelt there, but it didn't hurt as bad as it looked. "I need to cover this up..." The sun over her head disappeared. Looking up, her father was bearing down on her full speed, hands gripped together in an attempt to slam them down on her. "Shit!" Elise moved just in time to only get clipped by the debris that flew up, but she kept on going regardless.
"Why don't you fight back, kid?!" her father shouted. "I;m sure you can!"
"You said endurance this morning, dumbass." Elise hissed through her maintained breathing. "If I didn't have only fifteen minutes, I'd turn and do just that..." Elise made a turn towards the stronger aroma coming from there camp, and felt her ankle hit something.
That something snapped.
Elise looked down just in time to see a stretched vine flying away from her, and snaked up the tree near her. She gulped and looked up, following it.
A boulder at least four times the size of Elise was about to slam down on top of her.
"When the hell did you set this shit up?!" Elise roared angrily as she dodged the boulder, and felt another vine snap around her ankle, this time tightening around the same ankle and hoisting her upside down, making her yelp in surprise. "Are you kidding me right now?" She asked, swinging back and forth as she asked. She turned her right arm into a sharp iron blade and attempted to cut the vine holding her, but she couldn't reach it. The swinging of the vine made it hard for her to reach, along with the blood rushing to her head which only made her nosebleed from tripping at least three hundred times worse.
And then a hail of iron spears came at her from the darkness where she'd come from. Luckily one managed to clip the vine holding her, which made it unable to sustain her weight and sent her right back down into the dirt. Doing her best to dodge the onslaught of iron blades and get the dirt out of her eyes, Elise managed to stumble away and through a clearing in the tree's, still following the scent from camp. Once she had the dirt out of her eyes she once again broke into a sprint. She reached the bank of a stream, which she crossed with no hesitation, as it was only knee deep. She reached the other side, and clambered up the muddy ground trying to increase the distance between her and her father, whom she occasionally heard throwing out taunts.
Doesn't her ever..."Kyyaaah!" Elise shouted in surprise as her footing gave out, trapping her in a fifteen foot deep hole, obviously dug as trap. "For the love of God!" Using Iron to extent her hand up to the ledge and grab it, Elise catapulted back up, only to get grabbed by her father. "Let me go!" She shouted.
"Not a chance, times almost up!" he replied. Elise really didn't want to run all that way again, over and over, but she didn't have time to sit here and think out a strategy. She didn't need to though.
Elise decided to implement the Tetsu strategy.
Now what was the Tetsu strategy? it was quite simple really. All Elise had to do was do to her father what she had done to injure the Iron God Slayer Tetsu in their fight a while back.
Put simply, Elise drove her heel in between her fathers legs. She smiled upon hearing the high pitched sound that escaped his lips. She laughed triumphantly as he released her and she bolted. It didn't take her long from there to make it back to base camp, where her mother and Lily were talking.
"Yes!" Elise shouted, blood both dried and wet on her face. Dirt, mud, and water dripping off of her, and an all too happy smile on her face. "I got back!"
"Holy hell Elise." Lilly commented. "You went through hell."
"Your damn right, cat!" Elise replied with a cocky grin. "I had to get back here in only fifteen minutes from over there!" Elise pointed over to the crest of the hill she'd started from. "Pretty impressive, huh?"
"Sure is." her mother praised with a smile. "Where's your father?" Elise paled as she thought back to the kick she'd given him, one surely strong enough to prevent her ever having any siblings.
"W-Well..." She trailed off, unsure of how to answer that before she heard rocks crunching underneath someone's step. She whirled to find her father on his way back, clutching his stomach with one arm. His step was incredibly tedious and painful looking, which made Elise feel bad. Once he made it back to them, he fell to the ground in a heap with a moan, hands between his legs.
"You alright Gajeel?" Lily asked.
"..." Crippled moans was his response, and Elise tried to laugh it off as she wiped the blood from her nose.
"I must've hit him way to hard." She said sheepishly. Her mother rolled her eyes with a sigh as she stood and walked over to wounded Dragon Slayer, leaning down and rubbing his back to try and soothe him.
"I mean really Elise." She said, giving the girl a scolding glance. "Do you not realize how low it is to attack a man there?" Elise chuckled and looked away.
"O-Of course I do, it's just he gave me no other option..."
"It doesn't matter anyway..." She heard her father say through his whimpers. Elise looked down in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Elise asked curiously. Even through all the pain he was in, Elise's father had enough balls (surprisingly) to look up and snicker.
"Cause you're late, kid." Elise's eyes widened.
"What?!" She shrieked. "By how much?!"
"Roughly a minute...fuck, my nuts..." Elise crumbled to the ground in defeat.
"it's too early for this!" She complained. "It's like just eight in the morning!"
"I was going to give you a break too." Her father replied quietly, finally getting back to his feet. "But after that nut shot, you are not getting a break until you fall from exhaustion roughly sixteen hours from now, kid."
"Oh come on! Surely it doesn't hurt that bad!"
"A girl who's never given birth could never understand." he hissed. "Now, go back up to the start. I'll..." he flinched and doubled over. "Stay here and try not to throw up."
"Damn it!"
Gajeel watched as Elise collapsed halfway inside her tent, out like a rock. He smiled as he sat down next to Levy, watching the fire crackle.
"You sure worked her hard today." Levy noted with a grin. Gajeel nodded.
"She's better than I remember her being." he noted. "Last I recall she wasn't that good at fighting."
"Life or death situations tend to do that to a person." Gajeel nodded as these words. Ever since Gajeel had stopped training Elise seriously, she'd improved far beyond whatever his training could ave provided. It was the sort of experience you could tell someone obtained in the heat of an actual battle, something he nor anyone else could truly provide.
"She'll be just fine in the Games." He told Levy. "If she's works as hard as she has for the last few weeks for the remaining time, she;ll sweep the competition."
"You sure about that?" Gajeel scrunched up his face and looked over at Levy, who was already watching him.
"I am." he replied. "And so should you." Levy shook her head and looked over at Elise.
"I have the utmost of faith in her, don;t get me wrong." She said. When Levy looked back at the fire, Gajeel could see the turmoil there, dancing along with the flames. "If she gets put up against someone out of her league..."
"Who'd you have in mind? She'd stomp any..."
"Terra?" Levy demanded, stopping Gajeel cold. "Do you really think she could hold her own against her?" Gajeel really didn't know all that much about that girl, but he guessed she was a big deal. He watched as Levy laughed weakly. "Or anyone else in her league, for that matter. "I'm just worri..."
"This isn't Phantom Dove." Levy stopped at Gajeel's interruption. "This is not life or death. She'll be just fine, no matter if she goes up against Terra, or the Mikazuchi girl, or even Rogue's kid." Gajeel's glare hardened. "She'll be fine. Nothings going to happen." Levy watched him for a minute before she laughed, much more upbeat this time.
"I guess you're right."
"I know I am." The two conversed for a little more, before Levy decided she was tired. Gajeel watched her retreat, before he looked over at Elise. He sighed at her position half inside her tent, so he got up and walked over to her. He picked her up gently and placed her in her cot, pulling the one blanket over her.
This isn't Phantom Dove.
Gajeel closed his eyes as his previous statement echoed around his head. He was right, but maybe he should've used a less...violent comparison. As he watched his daughter's flip over and lie on her stomach, her back rising and falling rhythmically, he glowered.
"This won't be Phantom Dove." he repeated. "And nothing...Nothing will ever be like that." he got up and walked to the edge of the tent, stopping as Elise mumbled something incoherent in her sleep. Turning, Gajeel pondered the pained expression on her face as she mumbled quietly. "Did saying Phantom Dove...?"
"Hm...Like hell I'm giving you my extra bacon Drake, fuck off..." Elise murmured, turning over. "It's mine..."
Gajeel face palmed. of course that was it. He slowly looked back at her now serene face, imaginary Drake obviously having given up on the bacon.
"Yeah...Never again." he hissed.
"Over my dead body."
Hm, not so sure you should say stuff like that Gajeel. I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get ten!