Separated from the team, Natsu and Gray roam some enchanted woods, desperate to get back before they kill one another ... or worse, before they fall for each other!
Natsu squinted as he looked up a tower made of ice that glittered in the shadows of the forest.
"See anything?"
Gray stood at the top of the lookout tower, peering around. The sun was shining beautifully, birds flew above the bright tops of trees that stretched on and on, endless bubbles of fluttering green, as far as he could see. He knew this was a large forest; he overheard Lucy say it would take two days to cross it. However, he saw no end and no shadow that would have been the road that weaved through the woods.
"Maybe a little higher," he mused.
Gray pounded his fist into his hand, and the lookout tower rose more, soaring high. He was now twice as high up above the trees. He pulled out a compass and made sure it was pointing east. That should be the way to the village they were heading to.
"Wait. I think I see—"
"Gray!" shrieked Natsu.
He heard it a second later. The tower was cracking. Gray grabbed a guardrail as the structure swayed and began to topple over. To his surprise, even the ice up here on the platform had webbings of cracks spreading out as the entire ice tower began to shatter like glass.
"This is impossible," he whispered. There was no way his ice could just crumble like this. No way!
The tower leaned heavily over in a slow fall. Gray's stomach surged. He had to think fast.
"Ice-Make: Slide!"
Just before the tower fully fell, a slide formed, and Gray leaped on, sliding toward the ground safely while hearing his creation crash into the trees behind him. Halfway down the slide, it too began to crumble.
"Dammit! Ice-Make: Tarzan!"
Okay, so he totally made up this one, imagining somehow swinging from vine to vine, but the vines were ice. Luckily, as he fell on the demolishing slide and into the shadow of ominous branches, he saw the blue flash on a branch, grabbed it, and began to swing. Gray reached out, and another ice vine formed, letting him swing to the next tree. On the third vine, the ice snapped, and he was falling once again.
"Shit! Ice ... Ice-Make..." Think, Gray! Think!
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Before he hit the ground, someone caught him. Both went falling, but those powerful arms had broken the worst of the fall. They slid over leaves and finally came to a stop. Gray rose onto his hands and knees and looked down to see Natsu, sweaty from racing after the tower in order to rescue Gray. Now Natsu was on his back, leaves in his hair, face in pain, but as the tower and slide stopped crumbling and the forest went silent, his eyes opened. He smiled as he stared straight up into Gray's astonished face.
"Are you hurt?"
Gray blinked in confusion. Benumbed that Natsu, of all people, had saved him, he shook his head.
