Phoenix Tear (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 2

*Marek’s POV*

“Oh, come on, Brother! Why can’t I come?” I complained.

“Quit asking! It’s too dangerous for you!” he said back before leaving with his buddies. I grumpily ate my gummy bears as I pouted. I was so bored! Sissy went with her team, the Tri Jewels, on a different job, and I couldn’t go with them either. Her excuse was that I would be even more bored if I went with them because they were going shopping on the way home.

“Hey, Marek!” Noah called, “you wanna fight?”

“Okay!” I replied. It’s not like I have anything else to do.

“ICE SWORD-!” Noah unsheathed his ice katana and flew at me.

“EARTH ANGEL… ARROW!”” I hit him first because my attack can reach farther.

“BALAESTRA!” Noah struck at me. I was thrown back and crashed into a table.

“EARTH ANGEL… CALL!” I knocked him back and broke a window. We charged at each other again, but shadows suddenly pulled us apart.

“Boys! That’s enough!” Master Ebon yelled at us. He can use Shadow magic, but he only uses it when we get out of hand.

“We’re sorry,” we said at the same time.

“If you two are that bored, why don’t you help the Anthlings clean up?” Ebon’s wife, Opal, suggested. She’s usually very gentle, but her tone told us we didn’t have much of a choice. Most people don’t know this, but in our guild, these creatures called Anthlings are always hanging around. They look like they’re half-animal preteens, but no one really knows how old they actually are (not even them!). Anyway, for some reason, they enjoy helping us out, so they live at the guild (doing maintenance and stuff) and get the place to themselves when everybody goes home. I don’t know how many of them actually exist, but in our guild there are eight: Nikita and Quinn, the bartenders; Yuri, the medic; Kalma, the spy; Maya, the stylist; Merce, the night guard; Chester, the prankster; and Ceil, the lifeguard. We found Nikita, the rabbit girl, talking with Kitty.

“Um, Nikki…” Noah started.

“I know, you guys messed up again,” she whispered. She’s pretty quiet, except around the other anthlings.

“Where’s the broom?” I asked, thinking we should start with the broken glass.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. She snapped once, and the broken window and tables snapped back to how they were.

“That’s awesome, Nikita!” Kitty said.

“Yeah, but Opal told us to help…” Noah said.

“Well, it’s cleaned up now!” I pointed out.

“How about we go see if Yuri needs help in the infirmary?” Kitty suggested. I don’t remember inviting her to join us, but we are a team. She dragged me and Noah to see the  leopard-spotted catgirl. Kitty’s older brother Finn was there, too. Our “infirmary” actually used to be a storage room for whatever goods came into this old place while it was still a store. Now, it just held a few beds that Yuri and Chester (a squirrel boy) set up and Yuri’s medical supplies.

Anyway, Yuri and Finn were just tidying up.

“Hey, Grape,” Finn greeted Kitty. He calls her that because of her purple hair. In case you’re wondering, his hair is white, like his dad’s.

“Noah, you’re bleeding,” Yuri said, grabbing his arm. I just now noticed that he had a good cut in his arm. Probably from the glass of that window. Finn’s face went paler than his hair.

“I’ll be right back,” he muttered, running out of the room.

“Wuss,” Kitty scoffed when he was gone, “and he’s a Blood wizard!” It’s really weird how he gets all sick when he sees blood because the magic he performs with his own blood is amazing. Amazingly lethal.

“There you go,” Yuri said, removing her hand from the wound. When it comes to small injuries, Yuri can make them disappear in seconds.

“You should have let me get a lick at it,” someone hissed above us. We looked up to see our batgirl, Kalma, sitting on the rafters.

“If you’re thirsty, you know where the blood bags are,” Yuri replied calmly. Kalma rolled her eyes, but glided down and grabbed what looked like a drink pouch from a mini-fridge in the corner. But it’s not filled with Kool-Aid (trust me). Noah, Kitty, and I went back to the main area and sat down at one of the picnic tables. You see, because of our unconventional guild hall, we have equally unconventional furniture. The anthlings had tacked down soft red carpet a few years back so the floor wasn’t completely linoleum, but we still had several plastic picnic tables (the kind you’d see outside) lined up semi-neatly. It might seem weird to you, but we’re all used to it. Our fashion expert, mouse girl Maya, was replacing the floor-length curtains we kept in front of the huge windows near the entrance.

“Which fabric do you guys think I should use?” she asked, walking over to us. She had three samples: red sequined, burnt orange plaid, and one that looked like lava. We all pointed at the lava one.

“Thanks!” she chirped. We went to our “bar” (really just a small kitchen area behind some long white tables with black plastic tablecloths on them) and asked for three chocolate milks. Merce (a sea-green cat boy who was dozing under the table) glared at us, but he soon went back to napping.

“Don’t mind him; he’s just jealous,” dog-like Quinn told us. Poor Merce loves chocolate, but is lactose intolerant. As I chugged my milk and waited for my siblings to come back, I looked around the guild again. The burnt-orange walls with sporadic black handprints, the soft red carpet, the new lava-looking curtains, the gray plastic picnic tables, the request board by the automatic doors we never replaced, and my guildmates sparring or talking or hiding in a quieter spot. It’s not much, but it’s home.