Ruthless Winds and Raging Seas

Chapter 15

In the morning the ship docked at the nearest town. Lucy offered to pay for the clothes needed for Juvia as she had a pouch of money with her. Gray came along to carry her since her feet were too sore to walk on. Natsu told all three of them not be gone for too long because he didn't want anyone in town to recognize them as pirates.

As they looked for an appropriate place to find clothes, Juvia couldn't help but take in all the sights. She watched all the shops, stands, houses, and people walking around with great fascination. She knew it was probably rude of her to gawk and stare but she couldn't help herself, everything was just so amazing. Well at least to her it was.

At long last they found a local shop that sold dresses, shoes, corsets, and other women's clothing. Gray waited outside while Lucy helped her pick out suitable clothes and put them on. First she bought her some under garments though Juvia refused to wear a corset which luckily Lucy didn't object to.

"These are all so pretty." Juvia said looking at the dresses Lucy had brought her to try on. She ran her fingers over the fabric of nearly each one. "And they feel so nice."

"Let's see how they look on you." The blonde said.

She tried on many dresses but settled on the white regency dress with lilac trimming around the bust and panels on each side of the skirt and bodice. Lucy then picked out some sensible but pretty shoes to wear on her feet. After getting dressed she combed her hair and adorned it with a lovely wreath of white lilies and beads.

"How do I look?" She asked Lucy.

"Perfect." She replied.

Lucy had chosen purchase a new dress for herself because her old one had become faded and smelled of salt and fish. She didn't buy anything extravagant, just a long sleeved yellow dress with a tight fitting bodice which was edged with green satin piping. Using a matching green ribbon, she pulled her hair up into a bun.

Once she had made her purchase and both young women were clothed, Lucy called Gray into the shop to carry Juvia out. He was shocked and impressed by how lovely the mermaid looked especially with her hair dry and properly combed.

She didn't want Gray to constantly be burdened with carrying her around so she decided to try and walk again but as soon as her feet touched the ground she felt the awful pain again and started to fall over, Gray quickly caught her.

"You alright?" He asked.

"Yes." She said. "I'm just trying to walk."

"Well hey if your legs don't work-"

"No it's not that." She said. "It's my feet, mermaids aren't supposed to be on land for such a long time. We have the ability to grow legs when we're dry but that ability is for emergencies like if we get stuck on land so we use our legs to get back to the sea. However to prevent us from staying on land our feet feel terrible pain when we walk on them."

"How terrible is the pain?"

"Every step I take feels as though I'm treading on knives."

"Ouch! No wonder you can't walk right. Here I'll carry you."

"No. I have to learn to deal with the pain. Please let me walk back to the ship."