Firelight [A Fairy Tail Fanfiction]

Chapter Two

Our trio was a strange one, to say the least. For the first mile or so out of town we walked on the road, and apparently our motley crew was one that was uncommon, even in Fiore. I had a bright blue talking cat randomly sprouting white, feathery wings and screeching songs about fish above my head, and the surly dragon slayer just had this aura around him that radiated outwards; it was a little disturbing, and the other travelers on the road took one look and beat a hasty retreat from us.

I was almost glad to reach the woods, where the prevalence of various monsters and creatures deterred travelers. It didn't deter us, however, and we marched in with what others would call 'reckless abandon'.

I think it's safe to say that Natsu's attitude wasn't based on the proximity of others, as his temperament didn't improve when the trees closed in on us. In fact, with no other humans to turn his attention to, he actually seemed to get worse.

Maybe it was Happy flying around and singing, maybe it was me encouraging and discouraging certain songs, maybe it was my heavy steps in the woods, maybe it was our conversations, but I could hear Natsu's teeth grinding and see his hands twitching and smoking.

He looked like he was ready to incinerate me if he had to stand so much as one more moment of my chatter, so I took preventative measures. "Natsu, I have music if you want to listen to something that isn't us," I offered, extending the magic headphones that I'd taken from my bag. He didn't look happy to be accepting help from me, but even though he ripped them out of my hands with a little more force than was necessary, he relaxed when the headphones drowned his hearing with music.

From then on, the day was pretty enjoyable. The sense of irritation that Natsu gave off lessened. There was a peaceful air, and even though my feet were hurting from all the walking I was content.

Happy, it seemed, couldn't stand more than a few minutes of silence, because he engaged me in conversation about every topic under the sun, from fish (his favorite was undetermined, but he was adamant that fish shouldn't be cooked, and the fact that I wasn't a fan of raw fish was something he scolded me for) to magic.

He told me all about his magic, Aera, which allowed him to manifest wings and fly, which he demonstrated by executing dramatic dives towards me, and pulling up whenever I flinched. He laughed, I grumbled half-hearted threats, and Natsu trudged on in silence.

Happy also spoke a lot on the different types of magic that he would like to learn in the future. "I mean, it's pretty awesome being able to fly, and I can carry Natsu for a while, but I wanna do more than just carry him! I wanna be able to fight!" Happy was enthusiastic and explained about a few different types of magic that he had seen in the guild, and which ones he thought would be the most useful in combat.

High on his list was fire magic, of course, so that he could boost Natsu's magic if he ever needed to. But, he also mentioned transformation magic, which is a trait that I'd been practicing in the times when the quiet of the estate got to be too much.

I offered to teach him, and he was a little skeptical. "Why would I need that if I had fire magic?" Happy asked me curiously.

"It seems a little boring, but it's a great way to build up your strength to learn those other magics you were talking about. Plus, depending on what form you take, you would be able to fight alongside Natsu."

Happy thought about it for a long while; he even produced a cold fish out of seemingly thin air, num-numming on it before he grinned at me, "can we start tonight?"

'Tonight' appeared to be a loosely defined term with these wizards. We stopped and made camp when the sun was roughly an hour from setting, but we didn't immediately start on our lesson. We built a fire ('we' was also loosely defined, Natsu was in charge of the fire), I pitched my tent, found dinner, ate dinner, I was teased ruthlessly by Happy for the amount of dinner that I consumed, and then it was just casual conversation between Happy and me that had no particular direction or intent.