Of Fire and Ice

C.1

My lungs hurt. My stomach hurt. My feet hurt. My back hurts. My head hurts.

Everything just fucking hurts.

"Just hang in there, Henley. We'll be there soon." Ariadne told me, just hanging out on my shoulder. "Yeah, I know, Ari." I sighed.

"There's a town up ahead a bit. I can smell it." Ariadne sighed. I kept walking and thinking to myself.

Soon enough we reached this town and I was ready to collapse. "Just hang in there, Henley. We're close to an inn." Ari hissed in my ear. "I feel sick." I groaned and kept walking, coming up to an inn.

"One room, please." I sighed and the lady running nodded, and I handed her a bill for 1000 jewels. "Third room on the left." She handed me a key and I nodded, thanked her, and walked off.

I opened the door and found the bed, dropping my bags and falling down. "Hen, we have to eat." Ari nudged my arm. "Ari, I'm exhausted. Let me sleep." I sighed, closing my eyes. "What about food?!" Ari whined. "Go steal some, I don't care. Just let me sleep."

I blacked out and a while later I opened my eyes and found Ari on a table gently breathing fire onto a loaf of bread. The whole table had food all over it.

"Oh you're up! I thought you might've died for a minute." Ari said and I rolled my eyes, sitting up slowly. I felt pain and my stomach made a terrible noise. I held it, trying to calm myself, and Ari flew over with a peach in her clawed paws.

"Thanks, Ari." I sighed and started eating the peach. We feasted and I curled back up on the bed to sleep, Ariadne curled up to my chest.

The next morning we awoke to eat some more. I personally ate until I gagged.

"Hey Henley." Ari nudged my arm. I looked down for her to continue. "I heard there was a guild around here. We should find it and join!" She said excitedly. "Why would we do that?" I scoffed. "When was the last time you saw another wizard?" Ari looked at me.

"Hey, we're doing fine on our own!" I rolled my eyes. "Oh really? We have no money, no home, hardly any food that I haven't stolen, and no friends. Are we really doing fine, Henley?" She glared and I sighed.

"Fine. Let's go." I huffed, Ariadne riding on my shoulders and I walked through the streets.

"There it is! Fairy Tail!" Ari exclaimed to a bright looking building. "Are you sure?" I crossed my arms and turned my head to look at her. "Positive." Ari nodded.

"Well, here we go." I hummed and she jumped down, walking at my feet as I pushed the doors open and looked in.

It looked like a cross between a bar and a fight club. I could see a bar and a lady was behind it, hair just like mine. People were fighting all around, and I took a moment to evaluate everything that was happening.

Everyone was fighting each other, there were a few people on the sides. A blonde with a blue cat, a brunette drinking heavily, and the white haired bartender. There were also two guys on the side; one with pink hair and flames on his hands, the other with black hair and in his underwear. I tried not to stare too long.

I found the courage to walk on the outside of the fight and make my way to the bar. I leaned over and the white haired girl came over to me with a stunning smile.

"Hi, my name is Mirajane. I don't think I've seen you around here before." She said and I smiled softly. "Henley. I'm new to town, looking for a place to settle. This is the Fairy Tail guild, right?" I asked, looking at the fighting and Mirajane sighed. "Yes, this is Fairy Tail. And the fighting is normal, trust me."

"Now, Henley, I assume you want to join Fairy Tail?" She asked and I nodded. "Yep." "Have you been in a guild before?" "Nah, it was usually just Ari and I." I hummed. "Are you sure you don't want to join an independent guild?" She asked in confusion. "Independence isn't really working out right now for us." I sighed and looked at my feet, only to see Ari wasn't there.

"Ari? Ari?! Ariadne! Ariadne no!" I yelled, catching her about to blow fire at the pink haired boy. I quickly ran over and picked her up. "Ari, we talked about this. You can't set people on fire. It isn't good." I sighed, holding her at eye level.

"But it would help him! He's like you, Hen!" Ari said and it got unbelievably quiet. I looked up and found a whole roomful of eyes staring in my direction. Ariadne jumped onto my back, her head peeking over my shoukder.

I turned slowly back to Mirajane.

"So. Joining, huh?" I smirked.