FairyTail: Etherious Blood [Book 1/2]

Chapter Thirty-Four: Rescue Mission

     Carla's POV.

     Happy was avoiding me all afternoon. Whenever I would look for him I would always see him looking down at some picture in his paws. Natsu, smiling as wide as ever with his eyes closed and mouth open and frozen as if in mid-laugh, besides him was Happy, he wore a cheerful expression on his face and he was in mid flight to Natsu's left. The caption of the photo was written sloppily but clear enough for me to read "Best Friends for Life!", Happy was bawling over that picture, murmuring something each time I see him with it. His words sounded something like "I'm sorry".

     I finally got enough of his shit, it's almost dark outside and he was still crying. I walked over to him, trying to smear on my expression of disgust that I usually wore. I walked up to him and sat besides him on the counter in the mini-guild hall. He flinched but didn't move away or swoon over me like I was used to seeing.

    "Hello, tom-cat," I said blandly, looking over at him. "How are you?"

    "Good..." He mumbled, returning his attention to the picture. He stroked the image of Natsu sadly. Longingly. He reached up and wiped away the tears with his arm.

    "Now now, tom-cat, put on a brave face like you mean it," I snapped. "Would Natsu-kun want to see you in the state you are now? What would he do if he were here?"

    "..." Happy didn't reply for a moment, he just looked at me in shock.

    "He would tell me to wipe away those tears... And keep smiling, because if I won't smile that would mean that I would've given up hope of saving the person we lost..."

    "There, that's the spirit, tom-cat," I praised and he gave me a small smile.

    "Yeah," Happy sighed before going on. "Natsu always was confusing honestly. It's starting to seem like he was acting dumb... I know it sounds strange but... I remember as a kitten while me and Natsu were fishing for the first time, well my first time. I caught a fish and I told him to help me reel it in, he didn't do anything and I ended up losing the fish."

    "That doesn't sound like Natsu at all..." I said somewhat quietly. "He would always go beyond his limits to help us."

    "Yeah, I yelled at him about it he said something strange that still boggles me to this day. He said, 'if I helped you with fishing and keep helping when you should be learning, how would you know what to do when I'm not there? You need to learn how to do things on your own so you can help those around you without needing help yourself'."

     I stared at Happy in shock, gaping at how uncharacteristic that sounded of the dense Dragon Slayer. Was he pretending to be dense all along? Is he smarter than he wants us to know?

    "He would say those wise things then and again, like the quotes 'you don't die for your friends, you live for them'. Whenever I would ask him about it he would always say that he remembered someone telling him that. He said it wasn't Igneel and that he couldn't remember anything before Igneel in the first place," Happy said, his voice changing from moony longing to that of study. As if trying to glue pieces of a puzzle together.

    "Perhaps he had amnesia," I guessed and Happy shrugged.

    "He always was strange..." Happy muttered.

     Suddenly, everything fell dead silent as the two large guild hall doors flung open and the masters of the guild hall stepped in. Macarov, Jellal, Sting, Bob, Ooba Babasaama, and a few other guild masters including the three new ones. Mockingjay the guild master of Bladeden (sound mage), Avery Hue the master of Fire Heart (illusion mage) and Gladiator the guild master of Serpent Claw (take over mage). Kagura was there too, Mermaid Heel was participating in this war but the master refused to show herself so she allowed Kagura to do it since she was the most eligible mage in the guild.