Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Nineteen: First Storm of Winter

Erza stared out the window, sitting as close as she could to the fireplace without lighting her skirts on fire. A blizzard raged on outside, a sheet of unbreaking white all that could be seen past the glass. Lucy sat on the opposite couch, pressed tightly against Natsu and taking advantage of his warmth. Their fight from last month was a thing of the distant past, although the blonde still felt a twinge of annoyance every time Natsu and Mak were in the same room. Luckily for her, Mak was somewhere else, and she had no qualms about sitting as close as she could to the fire wizard.

Gray stood against the wall, knowing that sitting next to him would only make everyone colder than they wanted to be. He watched the pyro's green gaze dart constantly from the woman leaning against him to the closed door to Wendy's room, hearing things the rest of them couldn't. His entire body was tense with worry, something Gray hadn't seen in Natsu in a long time. Erza noticed as well if her bouncing leg was any indication.

"I hope Happy and Carla are alright," Lucy said, her voice cutting through the tense atmosphere. Erza nodded, tugging at her gray dress to pull the fabric into a more comfortable position.

"Carla is smart, and Happy isn't too dense himself. I'm sure they will stay wherever they are until this storm lets up. Let's hope they were still with Seck." Gray grunted in agreement, tugging at the tie around his throat and longing to throw it into the raging fire. It was uncomfortably warm in here, at least to him, much like whenever the flamehead prepared himself for a fight. It made him want to blast the room with an icy blast, but the magic wasn't there. It hadn't been there for a long time now. All he had left was the frost in his veins, a poor substitute for the ice that had been his constant companion for the past thirteen years.

Natsu's eyes jerked back to Wendy's door, staring quietly for a moment before nudging Lucy. She groaned, pushing herself up and nearly tripping over her dress. The wrinkled fabric caught Erza's eye for the fourth time that night, and she finally took in the state her friend was in. The uniform that had been treated with such care for the first few months was no wrinkled, stains hidden in the black fabric. Her bleary eyes were darkened by bags that only grew as the days went by, hair thrown into a messy braid and left alone for weeks. "Lucy, are you quite alright?"

Lucy blinked, glancing over at the requip mage in surprise. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Erza shook her head, Lucy's weary and strained voice only proving her point. "When was the last time you got a decent night's sleep?"

That made Lucy pause. She shrugged sheepishly, smoothing out her dress as she realized what Erza must have seen. "Uh, I don't know. I've been worried about Wendy, you know? And, well, it gets cold at night."

"What're you talking about? I can barely sleep with the covers on." Gray frowned, especially when Natsu shot him a glare. "What?"

"It's nice up here," Lucy agreed, walking toward Wendy's room, "but it's beyond freezing in my room. All of the servants' quarters are cold, no matter where you go or how long you've been here. And the only pajamas Seck gave me are this stupid thin nightgowns that would've been great for the summer, but they've just been torture. And none of the other maids have proper clothes or blankets to keep them warm either. That's probably why your cloak was stolen." She nodded at Natsu before disappearing into the other room, closing the door quietly behind her. Erza and Gray looked at Natsu for an explanation. He shifted, staring into the fireplace and wondering if Erza would kill him for having a snack. She probably would, but he was hungry enough to risk it.

"I went to visit her like a week after we got here. It was summer, I guess, but it was really cold down there. I mean, I wasn't cold, but she was shivering. I left her my cloak for warmth. And a couple days ago she said it was stolen from her room." Natsu shrugged, more reserved than either had ever seen him. "She won't let me say anything cause she knows that others are just as cold as she is. But she's barely sleeping, and if she does it's in her dress from the day."