Fire and Gold (Nalu)

Chapter 2 ~ Forest of Decievers (REWORKED)

   
    They'd been walking for what felt like hours in no purposeful direction, their bearings lost around 10 minutes in. The humidity and the spores from the fungi growing on the forest floor made it difficult for Lucy, Happy and even Natsu, who had an exceptionally good set of lungs anyway, to breathe.
   
    "So you're telling me..." Lucy spluttered, choking up the words as she spoke them, "that a little old man came here for a spot of berry picking?"

    Natsu didn't answer. Instead, he brought a hand over her mouth and then did the same to Happy.

    "Don't speak," he said, "don't breathe in any more air than necessary. The mushrooms here don't smell right. There's too much methane in the air too."

    Lucy peered into his eyes but he didn't look at her back. He instead continued to stare straight ahead, brows drawn.

    She knew he was right. If Natsu knew anything at all, it was which smells meant danger and which didn't. She glanced back down and nodded without complaint. He saw this little motion out of the corner of his eye and took his hand away from her mouth, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
    He then turned to Happy. "You too buddy, no talking." Happy nodded as well, not bothering to argue either. They both knew better. Natsu nodded back, taking his hand off of Happy's mouth as well.

    They continued walking, only to find that the forest kept getting darker and darker still. Lucy noticed that the trees around them didn't look healthy at all. A lot of them had Witch's Broom disease, something she'd only read about in books and seen only a handful of times in her many adventures, by far not in this magnitude though.

    There was also a very vivid smell of rotting flesh in the air that she'd rather not think about. She hoped it was an animal, prayed it was an animal even. She looked to Natsu who had much the same expression she did. He could probably tell if it was an animal or not, but she decided not to ask. In all honesty, she didn't want the answer.

    Their feet sank into the piles of moulding leaves and other rotting material as they walked.
    There was barely any sunlight here, even at the peak of the day when they'd first shown up, so it was really no surprise that anything that could actually grow here just died. Only the trees reached the sun, and even they looked to be on their last legs.

    Happy roused her from her thoughts. He opted for perching himself atop Lucy's head. She smiled, reached up and grabbed him. She cradled the blue cat in one of her arms. He was shaking. There was really no surprise though, anyone would get freaked out in a place like this. Herself included.

    A warm, rough hand clasped hers and a smile escaped her. It was almost like he sensed it. Natsu always seemed to know when she needed a bit of reassurance, it was one of the things she loved about him so much. She gave his hand a squeeze and received a squeeze back in return.

    Eventually, the three of them reached a clearing. It certainly wasn't much of a clearing, the canopy was still marginally dense, but it was a welcome sight for them all nonetheless. They could finally see the sky.

    "Huh... nighttime already?" Natsu questioned, glancing up to the dull glow.

    "Wow, I knew we'd taken a while but I didn't think we'd been in here that long..." Lucy muttered, also looking up.

    Though it was night, being able to see the sky again gave them all the slightest bit of comfort. Made them feel less alone. You're never truly lonely when there's all those stars up there watching over you.