章節 11: Arrival to Magnolia
"It's not that I don't care about him. I do care, but I just see him more as the brother I never had. I just don't think of him as boyfriend material, he is too much of an inconsiderate goofball." Lucy says with some disaproval. I'm more than surprised at this. (Natsu? Inconsiderate? Really? I can see goofball, but the other?) Now interested in hearing how this opinion came about, I question her.
"What do you mean by inconsiderate? From what I can tell, he is very caring towards his family, even though he likes to pick fights with Gray." I ask, just bursting in curiousity. She puffs out her cheeks in annoyance while crossing her arms across her body.
"He and that cat have been breaking into my house and not respecting my privacy at all." she grumbles in quiet anger.
"Seriously?" I blurt out incredulously, not quite believing her. I look down at the dragon slayer in my lap, reevaluating my thoughts about him.
"Definitely. That guy is dense and has no idea how to act like a gentleman. He has even been walking into the bathroom while I'm bathing without knocking." she huffs out. I frown in thought as I look at him.
(That is inconsiderate of him. But then again, he was raised by a dragon. They probably don't have the same manners as humans. If what Natsu says is right, and he really has been living in a house with just him and Happy all these years after coming to join Fairy Tail, it is possible he may not of been taught how to conduct himself properly.) I look up at Lucy at this point and voice my thoughts.
"Do you think maybe its perhaps due to the fact that he was raised by a dragon?" I ask her pointedly. She straightens up and a thoughtful look appears on her face.
"You know, that could be it." she says slowly with a frown on her face as she continues to think about it. Lucy turns her head to gaze out the window, looking like she is lost in thought. I chuckle lightly at her before returning my gaze to the scarf-wearing fire user in my lap. My eyes grow a bit heavy so I let them close slowly. I sigh, feeling at peace again and I drift off to sleep.
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A sudden jostling wakes me up quickly. I blink a few times trying to make sense of what is happening before I remember that we are on a train heading to Fairy Tail. Looking around, I see my friends standing up already and grabbing their gear off the racks. Feeling movement on my lap, I look down to see Natsu starting to wake up as well.
I grab his shoulder and shake him lightly to wake him up. He quickly sits upright with a loud yawn and a bone-cracking stretch. One side of his hair is flat from where he was laying on my lap, and the rest looks wilder than usual, most likely from how much I was playing with it. I giggle softly at the sight which has him turn to face me.
I laugh a bit louder at the sleepy grin he gives me before I cheerfully greet him, "Good morning Pinky, its seems we're at our stop."
Hearing this, he wakes up fully before gleefully shouting, "Alright! We're home!" Without looking, he reaches up to the luggage rack and grabs his pack. Letting it fall, he uses the momentum to swing it onto his shoulders in a fluid motion. Quickly, he steps out into the aisle of the train to get off. I stand up more slowly, before following him off the train. Out of the windows, I see Erza exiting further down the train, tugging with her that wagon of luggage she carries.
(How much stuff does she take with her if she has that Re-quip magic AND that wagon? Almost sounds like me when I play an Elder Scrolls game. I take everything and I mean EVERYTHING.) As I step clear of the crowd exiting the train behind me, I stretch to get the kinks out and pop my joints while waiting for everyone to group up.
A few moments later, I finish with the stretches and after a quick decision, I walk over to where Natsu is to check up on him. He is almost hopping in excitement to be home and Happy is flying by his side looking almost as happy as his best friend.
"Hey Natsu, how do you feel? Were you able to sleep ok?" I ask him pleasantly as I near the excited duo while carefully checking the dragon slayer's reactions.
He grins at me in a joyful manner before exclaiming, "I feel wonderful! That was the absolute best experience riding the train, ever!" (Complexion seems normal, eyes seem like they are dilating normally, no sluggish movements.)
Nodding in response, I question him some more, "And the sleep? Were you able to get any rest?" At this question, he looks away before looking back at me so fast I might not of noticed it if I wasn't looking for a reaction.
"A-ah yea. Slept like a baby through the whole thing." (Hmm, now he seems to be a tad jumpy and nervous. Something happened and he doesn't want to say. Most likely a dream, I won't ask about it.) I close my eyes and give him the biggest smile I have.
"I'm glad that you had a good time on the train!" I very cheerfully reply before opening my eyes again. Looking at him, he turns his head to the side and starts chuckling a bit nervously. (Ok, now I'm curious. What is going through his head?) I hear snickering from nearby, and I looking down to see Happy pointing and laughing at Natsu. This causes him to glower at the cat and I tilt my head in confusion. (Well, Happy sure knows what's going on…)
"Let's get back to the guild now everyone." calls out Erza and effectively breaking my train of thought. We all cry out a chorus of agreement as we go to leave the train station behind as a group. As we enter the streets properly my happiness falls somewhat. (Damn it, a stone road. Well, at least it isn't cobblestone this time. Hopefully the guild isn't too far away.)
Continuing down the street at a normal pace, my feet soon start getting stabbing pains again, causing me to start limping. Already trailing at the end, I slowly start falling further behind the others. Luckily for me, they are staying on the same street so even if I lag behind them, I won't get lost.
About what I guess to be halfway through town, I hear Natsu practically exploding with a loud, "We're back!" His arm is pumped into in the in his excitement. I chuckle at the obvious exuberance he is displaying. (He really does love his home, doesn't he?)
"Back!" cries out Happy like he is a backup singer.
"But man… all that work, and one key is all we get?" Gray complains almost bitterly from in front of Erza.
Happy flies next to Gray and quickly adds, "And it was a full-blown S-rank quest, too."
"It wasn't a proper job. This much is about right." Erza says calmly.
Lucy adds cheerfully, "Yup! Yup! No complaints!"
Looking back at Lucy from where he is flying, Happy flatly tells her, "You're the only one it's of any use to, Lucy!" He pauses, then says, "Let's sell it!"
In surprise she blurts out, "You thieving cat!" Lucy recovers quickly and continues on in a lecturing tone, "Besides, there are only 12 of the gold "Zodiac" keys in the whole world! They're super-duper rare, see." (Gold zodiac keys? What the heck are those? Do they have something to do with her magic?) Curiosity peaked, I shamble faster to get closer to the group to hear more about these keys.
Natsu looks over at Lucy with some weird grin on his face before asking, "That cow and maid?"
Sounding upset, Lucy snaps back, "As I progress, my spirits will get way stronger!" (Spirits? Cow and maid? Hmm, if it's the zodiac, the cow would probably be Taurus. But who would be the maid?)
Turning to look at her over his shoulder, Gray stops walking and asks, "So, what's the key we got this time?"
Sounding happier, Lucy replies while stopping as well, "The Archer, Sagittarius!" My eyes widen at that. (That's my Zodiac sign!) Almost behind the luggage wagon, I move up towards Lucy intending on asking her about it.
In surprise, Gray flips around to face Lucy and asks her, "Isn't that half-man, half-horse!?" You can almost see him picturing a guy with a horse head.
Turning partly away, Lucy says, "No, I think it's the other way around." When she says that, I picture a proper centaur in my mind. Natsu just stares ahead and you just can't help but get the feeling that he is imagining something weird.
Getting the same vibe as me about what he is thinking, Lucy says, "That's not either a man or a horse..." I'm fully caught up with the group by now and I open my mouth to start asking about these spirits when I'm cut off by Erza.
"Easygoing, aren't we?" she says normally before stopping behind the rest of us. I pout at the change in subject. She continues more sternly, "You haven't forgotten that you'll be punished when we get back, have you?" The three younger mages look back at Erza in shock.
Looking scared, Natsu blurts out, "Punishment?" Then in unison, they turn around to face her.
Lucy cries out in protest, "I thought we'd dropped that already!"
Still looking stern, Erza replies, "Don't be silly. Accepting your actions was a field decision on my part. You still must receive your punishment." They flinch in fear, while Happy looks terrified.
"Oh, no!" cries out Lucy.
Not pulling any blows, Erza continues, "I think you should be mostly forgiven for what happened this time. However, your judge will be the Master. And I have no intention of defending you. So be prepared to take your punishment."
"He's not gonna make us do that, is he?" wails out the flying blue cat in fear.
Absolutely terrified, Gray turns away from the group, clutching his head and cowering in fear before yelling, "Wait a sec! I never want to do that again!"
Becoming more scared because of Gray's reaction, Lucy cries out, "What is that?" She starts shaking in terror. Even I'm feeling uneasy about this punishment, even though I'm not the one in trouble. Unlike his earlier reaction to the news, Natsu has a easygoing grin on his face as he addresses Lucy.
"Don't sweat it. We did a good job, so gramps'll be impressed!" he says cheerfully while patting Lucy's shoulder in reassurance.
She gives him a disbelieving look before saying, "How frightfully positive of you…"
Erza cuts in with, "No, I think its pretty much decided already. I look forward to it." she looks back at them with an almost mischievous smile on her face. Natsu tries keeping his grin in place, but it turns forced and you can literally see the sweat starting to drip off of him which causes Lucy to start freaking out again. Before I could register that he even moved, he was already past me and almost past Erza.
(So fast…) Turning to look, I see that she caught him by the scarf that, effectively stopping him. Falling on his butt from the force of the sudden stop, he seems dazed for just a second.
"NOOOOO!!! Not that! Anything but that! Nooo!!" he cries out in pure terror as Erza starts dragging him down the street, her luggage forgotten. My heart went out to him from the pure abject terror of his face, but I didn't do anything to help. Erza already explained to me that they broke the rules and needed to face the consequences. And if its one thing I am, it's a stickler for rules. Gray is quivering in terror on the ground, not moving an inch.
Lucy shouts up to the world, "Like I said, what the heck is that?!" I feel sad because I want to help them, but I know I shouldn't. They broke the rules and need to learn a lesson. (But at the least I can maybe try to help ease their fear.) I walk over to Gray and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He flinches at first. (Thinks I'm Erza, I guess.)
"Hey, Gray." I say to him softly. He relaxes under my hand when he realizes it isn't Erza.
"Hey, Krysti." he says in pure relief. I crouch down to look him in the eyes. (The thought of this punishment really is scaring him.)
"Try not to think about it ok? The more you do, the worse it will be on you. Its better if you go in with happy thoughts then get the punishment, than going in dreading it the whole time." I say trying to cheer him up. His shudders calm down somewhat before he turns to look at me.
"Thanks for trying to help me feel better. It does help some." he says with a tremulous smile. I smile back before standing up and reaching out with my hand to help him up. His cold hand grasps mine, and with a heave I pull him up. I see over his shoulder that Lucy is still trembling in fear, so I go to try to get her moving as well.
"Hey Lucy, it will be ok." I start off calmly.
"How can you say that? You're not the one getting punished!" she wails. (Oh the poor thing.)
I shake my head before responding, "You don't know that." In confusion, she stops and stares at me. "You don't know what is going to happen, and I don't know the rules and what happens when they are broken. Who knows, I may get punished even worse because I delayed you guys from getting here as soon as you could." (Maybe this line of thought might help them brave this better.)
"But that's not fair!" she protests. "You didn't have anything to do with it! Nothing should happen to you!"
I look her straight in the eyes and ask, "How do you know? Are you that certain? Depending on how the Master is, I could be in for it as well." No longer scared, she gets a determined glint in her eye. (That's what I'm looking for. This will help her face that easier.)
"No, you shouldn't get punished. You did nothing wrong. And if the Master tries, I will do everything in my power to stop him!" she says forcefully. I grin at the conviction in her voice.
Gray walks up to us and adds, "The same here, I'll help make sure he doesn't do anything to you." (Good, now both of them are no longer scared. Too bad Natsu is being dragged by Erza, or I could try to calm him down as well.)
I smile at the both of them, "Then let's get back to the guild. The sooner, the better." They nod in agreement and start walking off. I take two steps before looking back at Erza's wagon. I look ahead and see that she isn't stopping to come back for it. (Guess she forgot about it. Well, time to get some use out of me.) I reach down to grab the rope handle with one hand and I give it a tug. Doesn't move. I grab it with both hands, and I pull.
It moves, somewhat. Letting go of the handle with one hand, I turn until the other one still holding the rope is behind my back. Taking the rope back into both hands, I dig in my feet despite their protests and start pulling.
I had to rock it a couple of times, but I got it moving. Once it started to move, it was easier and I slowly followed my friends who are now a fair ways ahead of me.
Lucy glances back behind her a couple of minutes later and stops walking, shock written all over her face. Gray stops to look behind as well when he notices Lucy stopping. He looks at me with a stunned expression. I say nothing to them as I concentrate on pulling the wagon. (Now I have a better idea on why they are scared of her. She is strong if she can pull this easily with one hand.)
The load suddenly lightens and I look up in surprise. I don't see Lucy or Gray anywhere until I look behind me. (They are helping me push the wagon?) I look behind me on both sides to see them smile at me while they help push the wagon. I smile and nod at them both in thanks before looking ahead and planning on catching up to Erza and Natsu.
創作者的想法 
TrinaVanHawkins1
TrinaVanHawkins1 What is this mysterious punisment that has our Fairy Tail mages in terror? We may or may not find out soon.
Also for those who really don't want to wait for more chapters, I do have more written on Fanfiction.net. The link to my story is https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10591289/1/Two-Hearts-One-Wish
But be warned, as I add more chapters to Webnovel here, I may change what I put here compared to what is already posted there.
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