Chapter 07 - Invitation
[Updated: 30/08/2015. Unedited]
(AN: I'm sure you've all realised by now that the updating of this book is random and sometimes very far apart. Reason: I'm a sixteen year old high school kid with aspirations for Uni. Apologies, but updates will be once a week earliest. Sometimes once a fortnight or once every three weeks. Please keep up with me. Sumimasen, minnasan.)
❅~~~☁ ~~~♥~~~☁ ~~~❅
Lucy winced, applying pressure to her injured leg. The skin around the wound was partially slick with drying blood, and it had already soaked through the makeshift bandage made from the end of Natsu's coat, turning the black to red. But it was the best they could do for the time being.
'Think you can walk?' Gray asked hesitantly.
Lucy grimaced, 'Yeah. Just, can we start off slow?'
Natsu made a low, rumbling noise of indignation as he folded his arms heavily across his chest. The early morning breeze caused the ripped ends of his coat to flap. Gray expertly ignored him, but Lucy frowned through a pain strained expression.
'I don't like it,' he grumbled. 'You should go back to the guild.'
Lucy shook her head, 'Uun. Juvia needs us. Gray can't rescue her on his own.'
'Who said I would be the one rescuing her?' Gray exclaimed, throwing his hands up.
Lucy sent him a pointed look.
Natsu huffed, 'Whatever. Luce, you can barely stand. We'll never make it all the way up the mountain.'
'Thanks for the confidence boost,' Lucy muttered.
Casting her gaze around the clearing they had claimed, the stellar mage felt her eyes fall upon a half buried stick by the tree line. Limping over painfully, she extracted the branch. It was relatively thick and strong, and reached only about her waist, but it would have to do. Tearing off a portion of her jacket, she wound the material around the tip of the stick to cushion the pointed end as best she could.
'There,' she declared, proudly showing off her crafted walking stick. 'Now lets go.'
'Lucy,' Natsu sighed.
The blonde ignored him and marched off (limped off) into the greenery without looking back, her head held high in practiced stubbornness. Natsu glared at Gray as if this was all his fault before following Lucy. Gray shook his head at their disappearing forms and stepped after them.
The day was still young, and the sky dark, but the ice wizard could clearly make out the mountain crown. Just beyond the trees lay the rocky terrain of the middle of the mountain. And beyond that, snow. And hopefully Juvia.
Happy hadn't returned by daybreak and the worry was beginning to show, particularly in the pinkette. Natsu's movements were jerky and disjointed, his muscles straining as he clenched his fists. Gray eyed him carefully as a vein in his neck pulsed.
Lucy, too, was clearly stressed. She tapped her walking stick nervously with every step, flinching every time leaves crackled underfoot. She gnawed on her bottom lip so furiously, Gray grew worried for the girls skin.
Silence dominated the group like a god had commanded it, towering over them threateningly; one sound would be the death sentence they all feared.The thought sent an anxious chill up the ice mage's spine, like someone was standing directly behind him, breathing down the back of his neck with a breath like snow.
Natsu broke the spell.
'When's Happy coming back?' he mumbled dejectedly.
Lucy sighed in exasperation; a default way of hiding her own concern, perhaps?
YOU ARE READING
He Came To Collect (A Gruvia FanFiction)
Fanfiction'You know what I want.' Juvia felt tears spring to her eyes, 'No! Juvia won't go back! Juvia doesn't want to go back! Juvia hates it there!' 'It's been nearly twenty years,' his tone turned low and menacing, like a deadly animal waiting to pounce. '...
