Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia
May 8, x774.
Finishing her conversation with Magnolia's mayor later than Alfonzo, Elicia walked down one of Magnolia's main streets toward the town's east gate with Reedus.
"I don't get it, we were there to complete the mayor's quest." Elicia said with a pout. "So, why did we have to wait so long?"
"I'm sure it's because the mayor had many other things to deal with."
"Were those things as important as keeping the town safe?" Elicia asked, continuing to pout.
Reedus could only sigh before smiling. He could only hope that Elicia would somehow remain as pure and innocent as she was now. Although, he doubted that wud be the case. This world was much darker than even he was sure of, so the chances of the innocent girl next to him staying so pure was low.
"I don't know if they were as important." Reedus replied. "All we can do is do our job quickly, so that the people won't have to worry about getting hurt by that pack of worgs."
Although she was not quite happy with that reply, Elicia understood that was the best they could do. So, she continued walking toward the town gate in silence.
Eventually, the duo made their way to the gate. Then, they continued walking down the public road. After walking for another half an hour, they arrived at the forest. The forest was rather large, and the public road traveled through it.
Seeing the specs of light that shined through the trees' canopy onto the road, Elicia felt her annoyance with the mayor's office fading.
"Wow, it's really pretty here." Elicia said in a wonderous tone.
"It is." Reedus said, nodding in agreement. "Perhaps I'll come here another day and paint the scenery."
"Ooh, if you do, can I have the painting?" Elicia asked with an excited smile. "Then, when Fonzie and I get our own house, we'll hang it in the living room."
"You sure have thought far ahead." Reedus said with a smile.
To Reedus' surprise, Elicia shook her head without losing her smile. However, Elicia's next words cleared up his confusion.
"I didn't even have to think about it." Elicia said, her smile growing wider. "Fonzie and I will always be together, so there's nothing to think about."
Smiling in response, Reedus decided to change the subject, over the last three years, he had realized that Elicia could easily lose sight of an objective whenever she got to talking about Alfonzo.
"You can tell me about that later, Elicia." Reedus said in a gentle tone. "But now, we, or rather you, have a job to do."
Hearing that, Elicia immediately snapped back to her senses. Then, her smile slowly disappeared, turning into a determined expression.
"Right, there's work to do." Elicia said with a nod.
A moment later, Elicia, with Reedus following behind her, started walking down the road leading through the forest. After walking for a while, Elicia turned her head back to Reedus.
"Hey, Reedus, have we reached the center of the forest yet?" Elicia asked.
Though he did not know why Elicia was asking this question, he did not hesitate to answer it.
"Not quite, if we walk at this pace for another five minutes, or so, though, we'll be there." Reedus replied.
"I see." Elicia said with a nod. Then, she started walking again.
A little more than five minutes later, Elicia stopped in the middle of the road. Naturally, Reedus stopped as well, curious to see what Elicia would do.
Reedus knew that the quest asked the wizards to kill the worgs. But just as important as killing the worgs, if not more so, was finding them in the first place.
'I wonder what she's gonna do.' Reedus wondered as he stepped away from Elicia who had just closed her eyes. 'I hope she's actually considered this part. Worgs are quite cunning. So, they won't be that easy to find by normal means.'
Meanwhile, with her eyes closed, Elicia was going over her options. In reality, Reedus had no need to worry. Elicia had already considered the difficulty of finding the worgs. And she was currently thinking what methods she could use to do so.
'Okay, I could try spreading my magic power, like those characters in light novels do.' Elicia thought to herself. 'But this forest looks uber big. I probably don't have enough magic power to cover it all. But, if I use my [Thread Magic], the use of magic power would probably be more efficient.'
Nodding her head at that last thought, Elicia opened her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, under Reedus' watchful gaze, she knelt on one knee, placing her hands on the ground.
"[Thread Magic: Detection Strings]." Elicia said, quietly chanting the name of her spell.
An instant later, thin, almost invisible threads began to spread from her palms in all directions. In fact, these threads were so thin, Reedus did not even notice them as they shot past him. After the threads stretched much further than the eye could see in this forest, Elicia closed her eyes once again.
Elicia actually developed this spell a year or so ago. She had lost something in her dorm room. And for the life of her, she could not find it. So, in a panic, she spread her threads all over her room. To her surprise, she was able to send some of her senses into the threads if she tried hard enough. Then, after she grasped the trick behind it, she found her favorite comb in less than three minutes.
Over the year since she developed the spell, she has learned how to add her senses to the threads more efficiently. And she decided that this would be the easiest way to find the worgs.
"There are really a lot of moving things in this forest.' Elicia thought to herself. 'But most of them are too small to be worgs. I read in a book that worgs are halfway between the size of normal wolves and horses. So, they should put a lot more pressure on my threads than anything else in this forest.'
With that thought in mind, Elicia let her mind filter out all the smaller sensations that brushed against her threads. Eventually, while focusing on the larger ones, she found two spots that could possibly be the pack of worgs.
In the northeast, there were two animals walking on her threads. While in the south, there was one.
'I'll check the northeast first, since there are two of them.' Elicia thought as she opened her eyes.
"Reedus, I think I found them." Elicia said with a smile. "I'll head out to check."
A moment later, without waiting for Reedus to reply, Elicia shot threads from the fingertips of her right hand and wrapped them around a nearby tree branch. Then, she pulled herself off the ground and began swinging between the trees toward the response she felt on her detection spell.
"*Sigh* She could at least wait for me." Reedus said with awry smile on his face.
A moment later, Reedus used his magic power to increase his running speed as he chased Elicia through the forest. Then, three minutes later, he stopped as he saw Elicia standing on a tree branch. When he followed the direction where she was looking, he found the figures of two animals who were about as tall as the average horse. However, they were much too round to be worgs.
"Burrowing boars, huh?" Redus said, immediately recognizing the species of the magical beasts in front of him.
Burrowing boards were boar-type magical beasts who were adept in earth magic. They tended to use it to burrow under trees to find insects and other food sources.
Looking up to Elicia once again, Reedus was surprised to see that she was currently drooling. Then, he listened closely and could hear her mumbling to herself.
"Fonzie could make some really big pork chops if I brought those back, right?" Elicia asked with her eyes sparkling. "If I ask real nice, he might even make some smothered pork chops."
Once again, Reedus sighed. Although he could understand how Elicia felt, now was not the time to be thinking about Alfonzo's cooking.
"Elicia." Reedus said softly, getting the girl's attention. "Did you forget that you're on a quest?"
Elicia immediately opened her eyes wide. Then, she shook her head. After looking at the burrowing boars longingly once more, she muttered.
"Don't worry, I'll come back for you." Elicia said as if she would come to rescue the boars from their suffering.
A moment later, she shot her threads at a tree. Then, she swung off toward the other reading she had picked up during her search.
"*Sigh* Seriously, could you wait for me?" Reedus asked before running off to follow Elicia.
Ten minutes later, Elicia neared the area where she felt the other large animal in the forest. However, the only reason it took her so long to arrive was because she decided to circle around and approach them from the down wind direction. It did not take a genius to know that she would be detected well before she could arrive if the worgs picked up on her scent first.
When Reedus arrived, he saw Elicia once again standing on a tree branch, frowning at what she saw. When he looked over as well, he immediately understood why.
"So, there were actually six of them, huh?" Reedus muttered. "And it looks like there is an alpha among them. I wonder what she will do. She's well within her rights to go back due to inaccurate information."
As Reedus said, there were six worgs, five of which were laying down on the ground while the largest, or the alpha, was strolling around the area.
By the time Reedus had arrived, however, Elicia had already come up with a plan. The thought of turning back had never crossed her mind.
"[Thread Magic: Thread Puppets]." Elicia chanted quietly with her hands pointed at the forest floor.
A moment later, a large amount of thread was ejected from Elicia's hands. Then, they started to weave themselves together silently. About a minute later, Reedus opened his eyes wide at what he saw.
Standing in front of Reedus were a pair of burrowing boars, nearly identical to the ones he had seen before.
A second later, Elicia began controlling the boars to walk forward. At first, their movements were rather clunky. So, Elicia had them circle back toward her. Then, for the next few minutes or so, she continued controlling the two boar puppets until their movements looked quite natural.
"Okay, I think I'm ready." Elicia muttered to herself.
An instant later, the boar puppets were approaching the pack of worgs. Then, when they got close, she had one of them intentionally step on a fallen twig, causing it to snap. Naturally, this drew the attention of all six worgs, causing their ears to perk up and their heads to snap in the direction the sound came from.
A moment later, the boar puppets were in view of the worgs, and Elicia stopped their movement. Then, after the two sides stared each other down for a moment, she made the puppets run away from the worgs.
Immediately after the puppets ran away, the alpha worg raised its head and howled into the sky, causing the other five worgs to shoot off in pursuit.
"So, that's why the quest sheet only mentioned five worgs." Reedus said, hiding in the direction opposite the puppets.
Watching the chase, Reedus noticed that it did not take long for the worgs to catch up and surround the boars. Then, they all charged at the boars from different directions, each taking a bite of the boars. However, it also did not take long for the worgs to realize that something was wrong.
Instead of the taste of meat and blood, they only felt the sensation of biting something similar to hair. Realizing that it was most likely a trap, one of the worgs howled, alerting the alpha that the five of them were in danger.
As soon as the howl was over, the boar puppets disassembled and wrapped the five worgs in threads, muzzling them all I the process.
A few moments later, two more boar puppets appeared, with one lying on the ground with its throat torn out. Then, after a few more moments, the alpha worg arrived on the scene.
Taking a few seconds to survey the scene, the alpha worg cautiously approached. When it was close enough, it finally realized that its pack had been tangled up with something. However, at that point, it was too late.
The boar that had been standing quickly turned toward the alpha and rushed in its direction, trying to skewer it with its tusks.
Not feeling threatened at all, the alpha worg dodged the puppet's charge and swiped at it with its front paw. Unfortunately, that was a bad decision. As soon as the paw swipe landed, the puppet disassembled, wrapping the alpha worg just like the other five.
Once all six worgs were wrapped up securely, Elicia hopped down from the tree she was controlling the puppets from. Then, she slowly approached the bound worgs.
"I'm sorry I have to do this." Elicia said, not sure if the worgs could understand her. "I really don't like killing living creatures. But you hurt the people of Magnolia. So, to keep them safe, I have to do it."
While she spoke, Elicia looked really uncomfortable with what she was about to do. However, after taking a deep breath, her expression firmed up.
"Thread Magic: Thread Scythe]." Elicia chanted in a resolve tone.
A moment later, the threads wrapped around the worgs necks constricted quickly. Then, the worgs were all beheaded.
"Well, I better bring them back to the town." Elicia said in a somber tone. "I don't like killing, but it had to be done. And since it had to be done, there's no sense in leaving good material behind. Their hides should be able to make something nice if I use them right."
1/2
The next one will be up in a few minutes.
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Comments, Reviews,and Power Stones are always appreciated.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
May 8, x774.
After Alfonzo and Elicia finished their magical beasts subjugation quests, they both returned to Magnolia with their observers, Wakaba and Reedus, respectively. After showing their clients that they completed the quests, they both sold off the extras of the jobs. With Alfonzo selling off twenty of the twenty four horned rabbits that he hunted, earning himself a nice sum of 100,000 Jewels. Meanwhile, he kept the other four for himself, so that he could cook a celebration dinner for himself and Elicia. Naturally, he would invite Cana, Laki, and Alzack to join, as well.
Elicia, on the other hand, sold most of the materials from the six worgs, earning 65.000 Jewels. If she had been willing to sell their pelts, however, she would have been able to raise that total to a nice, round number of 100,000 Jewels like Alfonzo. Since she had plans for them, however, she missed out on a bit of extra income.
When the four wizards returned to Fairy Tail's guild hall, Neither Alfonzo nor Elicia were surprised when Makarov asked them for twenty percent of their earnings from the quest. He then explained that these fees were to keep the guild running and take care of the building's upkeep.
"It's also to pay for all the damages those brats cause while their out on their jobs." Makarov muttered, staring at Wakaba and Reedus as he spoke.
In response, Reedus smiled wryly. He never intended to cause property damage when he completed quests, but it just kind of... happened. Wakaba, on the other hand, looked away and pretended that Makarov was not currently glaring a hole in the side of his head.
"*Sigh* You brats are gonna be the death of me." Makarov said, rubbing his temples at the thought of paying the Magic Council even more money in the future for his guild's reckless behavior. A moment later, he turned his attention back to Alfonzo and Elicia. "Anyway, the percentage of the reward you have to give to the guild will go down as the rank of the quest goes up. So, stronger wizards receive better benefits."
Nodding in response, Alfonzo and Elicia both understood the concept. Although the percentage that the guild would take would decrease, the amount that it would get from each higher ranked quest would go up.
For example, the guild takes twenty percent from a D-Class quest. D-Class quests have a reward ceiling of 25,000 Jewels for a quest. Twenty percent of that is 5,000 Jewels. However, for a C-Class quest, the guild only takes fifteen percent, but the reward ceiling is 100,000 Jewels. So, the guild would take a total of 15,000 Jewels.
And as the rank goes up, so, too, does the percentage go down. Either way, the guild receives more Jewels with each step up in difficulty.
"Anyway, enough with the financial talk." Makarov said, picking up his mug. Then, he raised his mug, addressing everyone in the guild hall. "Listen up, you brats! Alfonzo and Elicia have both completed their first official quest! So, we're gonna party to celebrate!"
"Yeah~~~~~!" The members of the guild cried excitedly.
After the cheering died down, Alfonzo opened his mouth to speak to Makarov.
"Hey, Gramps, I'm gonna use the kitchen to cook me and Lici's celebration dinner." Alfonzo said with a smile. "And I'll pay for any ingredients that I use."
"Go on." Makarov said, acting as if he didn't care. "Just out of curiosity, though, what are you gonna make?"
Though his tone said he did not care, Makarov was listening too closely for that to be the case. And Alfonzo knew it.
"Oh, nothing special." Alfonzo replied. "I'm gonna make a creamy casserole with horned rabbit meet, egg noodles, spinach, and some other things."
Not only Makarov, but Elicia, Wakaba, and Reedus also gulped audibly after hearing what was on the menu. Then, Elicia lunged at Alfonzo and hugged him tightly.
"Fonzie, I love you so~~~ much!" Elicia said with a big smile. Then, she kissed him on the cheek.
At that moment, Cana, Laki, and Alzack approached the bar to congratulate Alfonzo and Elicia for completing their first quest. Naturally, Cana flared with jealousy at the sight of Elicia kissing Alfonzo, even if it was only on the cheek.
"Lici, what are you doing in a public place?" Cana asked enviously, making an excuse to reprimand Elicia for kissing Alfonzo.
Instead of reflecting on her actions, however, Elicia let go of Alfonzo. Then, she hugged Cana tightly.
"Cana, Cana, Fonzie said he was gonna make a creamy, horned rabbit meat casserole for dinner!" Elicia shouted excitedly.
Hearing that, like the other four before them, Cana, Laki, and Alzack gulped involuntarily. Then, Cana's expression melted, turning from an angry scowl to a gentle smile.
"Fonzie... Do you think... I could have some too?" Cana asked sheepishly.
"Me, too." Laki added.
"And me." Alzack requested.
"Of course." Alfonzo said. "You three are Lici and I's best friends. So, there's no way I'd leave you out of our celebration."
"Yay!" x 3
Cana, Laki, and Alzack cheered happily. Meanwhile, the three older wizards, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus, looked at the children with a bit of envy in their gaze. Then, after exchanging glances, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus came to a decision.
"Ahem!" Makarov cleared his throat, drawing the children's attention. "Do you think we could have some too?"
Looking back at the three adults, Alfonzo wore an apologetic expression.
"Ah... I'm sorry, Gramps." Alfonzo said in a feigned tone of sadness. "I only have four horned rabbits. After having them butchered, I only had enough meat to make servings for six. So..."
Once again, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus exchanged glances. However, this time, it felt much more... cut throat. It was obvious to anyone watching that they were prepared to stab each other in the back at any moment.
"... I'll only have enough to share with Gramps, who picked us up three years ago and gave us a home." Alfonzo continued after noticing the glances the three exchanged.
Immediately after Alfonzo finished speaking, Wakaba and Reedus looked at him as if they had been betrayed. Meanwhile, Makarov looked at him as if he was the favorite of all his children.
"Hahaha! You're such a good kid. Alfonzo." Makarov said accompanied by some hardy laughter. "Just like you're mother, you're one of my favorite children. Even if both of you share the issue of swearing too much."
Wakaba and Reedus gazes shifted from Alfonzo to Makarov. They just looked at the shameless old man with blank expressions. Meanwhile, Alfonzo looked at Wakaba and Reedus before snorting.
'Don't think you'll be getting any free meals from me.' Alfonzo thought to himself as he started walking toward the kitchen. 'The only reason Gramps can get free food is because he pays me for my work in the kitchen. Otherwise, he would be wearing the same distraught expression as the two of you.'
And just like that, the celebration in the Fairy Tail guild hall continued and those that got to try Alfonzo's creamy, horned rabbit casserole, mostly Makarov, rubbed it in the face of everyone who didn't. Naturally, this caused the celebration party to end with a guild-wide brawl.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Isvan, Nameless Mountain Forest.
August, x774
A little more than three months have passed since Alfonzo and Elicia took their first official quests as Fairy Tail wizards. In those three months or so, they have each taken a D-Class quest once a week, resulting in each of them completing twelve D-Class quests.
In their free time, both Alfonzo and Elicia have been working on their own projects. While Elicia has been expanding her clientele list, spending all her time either training or making clothes outside of questing, Alfonzo has been doing much the same. Working on his car project, cooking at the guild, or spending time reading about as many topics as he could in the guild's library.
The difference between Alfonzo and Elicia, however, is that Alfonzo can't work on his passion, the car project, whenever he wants. Instead, he can only work on it under Nell's supervision. Unfortunately for Alfonzo, though, Nell has more to do than just watch him work on the car. Otherwise, he would have been able to make much more progress in these three months.
Meanwhile, in Isvan, Ur had been training Lyon and Gray to the best of her ability as a magic teacher. Because she practiced a type of ice magic, she emphasized getting used to extremely cold temperatures. That way, they would be less affected by their own magic.
So, for the last seven months, Ur made Lyon and Gray do all their physical... Well, their training out in the snow. On top of that, they were forced to strip down to just their underwear.
When Gray first heard this, he thought that Ur was messing with him. However, when he saw her take her clothes off and stand in the snow in only a set of bra and panties, his eyes almost popped out of his head. Then, when Lyon scolded him for taking too long to get undressed while shivering as he only wore his own underwear, Gray simply gave up and followed instructions.
After a few months, Gray eventually got used to standing in the freezing cold weather in just his underwear. Though, he still thought it was absolutely insane.
On top of getting used to the cold, Lyon and Gray were both able to take the first step as [Ice-Make] wizards.
"[Ice-Make: Eagle]!" Lyon shouted after making the prerequisite hand movements.
An instant later, a white magic circle appeared in front of Lyon's outstretched hands. Then, from that magic circle, half a dozen eagles made of ice flew forth and began circling around himself, Ur, and Gray.
"[Ice-Make: Lance]." Gray said, making the same hand movements as Lyon.
An instant later, like with Lyon, a magic circle, though his was silver-blue, appeared in front of Gray's outstretched hands. Then, half a dozen sharp ice spikes grew from the magic circle and aimed to skewer the eagles that Lyon created.
*Clap!*
"Alright, that's enough for today." Ur said, happy with her student's progress. "Let's get cleaned up then we'll head to the town to stock up on supplies."
"Okay." Lyon and Gray replied simultaneously before picking up their clothes and heading inside the house to take a warm bath.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Ur and her pupils, behind a tree in the distance, a little girl with long black hair watched them enter the house while shedding tears.
"Did she forget me?" The black-haired little girl asked nobody in particular as the number of tears sliding down her cheeks increased. "Did she forget me after she found those two?"
As she spoke, the sad expression the little girl was wearing slowly turned into one filled with anger. Then, without looking back, and holding resentment in her heart, the little girl ran away from the house that she once called home.
A few hours later, Ur, Lyon, and Gray were in the town nearest to Ur's house. And as they usually do, while Ur was in one of the shops picking up supplies, Lyon and Gray were arguing about something inconsequential.
"Gray! What are you doing?" Ur asked as she stepped out of the shop she was in with a bag of supplies. "You can't take off your clothes in public."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Gray asked. Then, as he started looking down at his clothes he continued. "I didn't take off.... Ah! Where are my clothes?"
After that, Gray ran round the area looking for his clothes. Luckily, it was not snowing today. So, he was able to find his clothes lying on top of the snow rather quickly. Meanwhile, Ur could only shake her head at this.
"Gray, I'm not raising you to be a pervert." Ur said in an exasperated tone.
"What are you talking about?" Gray asked angrily. "Who else's fault could this be but yours. Because of your weird training, I've started taking off my clothes without realizing it."
*Thump!*
"Ow!" Gray cried out in pain.
Immediately after Gray made his accusation, Ur dropped her fist on the top of his head for even insinuating that she was responsible for this behavior.
"I never told you to take your clothes off in public, you little brat." Ur said while grabbing and pulling Gray's cheeks.
"She's right, you know." Lyon added. "I go through the same training as you do, but I don't' take my clothes off like a streaker or a flasher."
At that moment, however, Gray overheard a conversation that caused him to tune out what Ur and Lyon had to say. In fact, he could no longer even feel the pain from Ur pulling on his cheeks either. All he could register was the words that the two men at a stall selling meat stew were saying.
"Are you serious?" The man behind the stall asked as he scooped a bowl of stew into a wooden bowl.
"Yeah, as a heart attack." The other man said. "I heard that monster that's been destroying villages is headed toward the next village over to the west."
"Damn, that village isn't that far away from here." The stall owner replied, handing over the bowl of stew. "Maybe it's time to move away from here."
"I know what you mean." The other man said while stirring the stew. "I was thinking the same thing."
"Hey! Gray!" Ur shouted, getting Gray's attention. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Gray replied absent mindedly.
"Stop spacing out." Ur reprimanded. "Come on, it's time to go home."
Nodding in response, Gray followed Ur and Lyon as they left the town and started their walk back to their house. However, Gray's mind was filled with his own thoughts, ignoring the conversation between Ur and Lyon. In fact, after hearing the two men chatting, thought of revenge were the only things that filled his mind.
2/2
I'll be back with more next weekend.
Check out my other story, High School DxD: Scattered Cherrry Blossoms, if yo're intersted,
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the story.
Comments, Reviews, and Power Stones are always appreciated.