The Fate of the Four Elements

Chapter Three: A Trigger?

Rini's POV

I'm surprised I've lasted this long. There was a huge gash in my right side, and I had bleeding scratches and bite marks all over my body. I'd held them off for the most part, using mostly my air magic, but I only had a few moments left before one of them finished me off. If Poppy wanted me alive, she'd have to get here pretty damn soon. I decided to use my last resort. I mustered up the rest of the magic power I had left in me, and created a tornado, only a little taller than me, and aimed it at the icy hounds. I caught them up, and I knew it would disperse in around 30 seconds, but that still means I could make them disoriented. After they all got caught up in the small twister, I shot it as far away from me as I could, which was only around 30 feet away, as I predicted. They all had to take a few seconds to recuperate, but in that short amount of time I caught sight of Poppy flying towards me, yelling my name. I smiled at her. She made it, but I'm afraid she might be too late. The last thing I saw was her horrified face as the leader of the pack shook himself out of his dizzy state, lunged at me and knocked me to the ground. I felt a sharp pain on my neck and saw a flash of pink before I blacked out.

~~

I woke up to quiet snoring and a bright light behind my eyelids. It took a good amount of time and effort to get my heavy eyelids open, and I was only greeted by a blinding light that hurt my eyes. I sat up, adjusted to the light, and looked around to try and find the source of the gentle snoring. I spotted a ball of dark purple fur at the end of my bed, realizing it was Poppy. I also saw in a chair near the door, which was across the room from the end of the bed, was the pink haired "Natsu" that wanted to battle me. "Why is he here? In fact, where is here?" I thought to myself, trying to take in my surroundings. I was suddenly attacked by that previously sleeping ball of purple fur.
"Rini! Thank god you're okay. We were all afraid you'd never wake up! How's your neck feeling? How about your side? Can you remember what happened? Wait, can you remember who I am?! Please tell me you don't have amnesia!"
"Woah, woah, calm down Poppy. I know who you are don't worry." I tried sitting up, but there was a sharp pain in both my neck and side. The events that caused this pain started to come back to me.
"How the hell did I live through that." I chuckled a little.
"I got some help to defeat the wolves! Natsu over there did it, since his fire was the most effective." Poppy explained.
"Wait, how long have I been out?" Poppy knew what I was really asking; "how much time have I wasted not running from whatever they are going to send after me next?"
"It's... It's been about 3 days." She looked around nervously.
"What?! 3 days?" I sat upright, the panic starting to make its way back into my head,
"No, no no no. Poppy they could find me any minute now. They could seriously hurt the people at this guild, just to get to me. We have to go." I started getting out of bed. I was in the same clothes I had on before I passed out, but now they seemed to be clean. Actually, in general, I seemed to be clean. I wonder who was responsible for that. Probably Poppy.
"But Rini, these people are really nice. They treat each other like family. They could help us." She looked at me pleadingly.
"You stay here then Poppy," I grabbed her paws lightly, "stay here, become a part of a real family. I can't stay, I have to leave. If they find me before I leave, someone could get hurt, Pop. Someone could get killed. I'm not going to let anyone else come in harms way for my sake. What happened 3 weeks ago will never happen again and I'm going to make sure of it." My voice broke at the mention of my adoptive parents' deaths. Poppy looked at me and slowly shook her head.
"I'm not leaving you. Not now, not ever. We're in this thing together Rini. I brought up staying here because I want you to become a part of a real family again. You deserve it, more than anyone does. You could live a happy life here, free of running and hiding. These people have taken on dark guilds before. They could help you Rini."
"I want to, and you know that. But I could never ask that much of anyone. I could never ask them to go out of their way to help me, and possibly get seriously hurt in the process. They barely even know me for goodness sake."
"Then let's at least stay for a few more days. I'm sure the dark guild hasn't even figured out that their wolves have been defeated yet, let alone figured out where you are. At least meet all of them, for me." She was begging me to do something that could put all of these people in danger. The sad part is, I caved in. Her puppy dog eyes were one of the only things that could get me to give in like that.
"Fine," I said, defeated, "we can stay for a few days." Poppy jumped up, cheering. I heard some movement near the door, and I looked over to see Natsu waking up. Little did I know at the time, he had been awake, listening to Poppy and I's conversation. He looked over at me, realizing that I was finally awake.
"Hey, look who's up! You're looking a lot better too." He gave me a big, toothy grin.
"I'm feeling better, thanks. Although I really don't know how the hell I got this." I winced, pointing to my neck.
"One of the wolves got you good there, but I took 'em out with my fire." He lit up his hand and looked at it with pride.
"Where are we exactly?" I asked.
"We're in the infirmary of Fairy Tail, the guild you tried to rob food from a few nights ago." I laughed, sweat dropping.
"I'm really sorry about that, I hope it was all in okay shape when you brought me back to the guild."
"Most of it was. Okay, you've asked enough questions. Now I have some for you." He turned serious in a matter of seconds. This kid was hard to keep up with.
"Ask away." I said nervously.