Thunder Snow [Fairy Tail fanfic - 11/12]

The next time he woke up, it was from Ino jumping on the bed.  Laxus lifted his head and watched as she tossed her bear into the air and jumped up to catch it, over and over again.  Ciel and Shira were both gone and the sun was shining through the windows.  He sat up and caught the bear that Ino threw to him, holding it up for her to jump.  Instead, she launched herself into his chest, giving him a hug and sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Yay, you’re awake!  Ciel and Shira said to come downstairs for breakfast when you woke up.  Let’s go!  I’m hungry!”

She scrambled off the bed and grabbed his hand, pulling until he got up and followed her out the door and down the hall.  The scene in the main hall was chaotic, with tables being take down, chairs stacked in corners and workers mopping the floor.  Laxus saw Ciel and Shira sitting with a few other people at a table filled with food.  As he and Ino descended the stairs, Shira looked up and saw them, waving and calling to make sure they were coming over.

“Good morning,” Ciel said as he sat down next to her. “Did you sleep well?”

“Morning,” he replied, looking at the dishes in the center of the table.  “It was fine.  You should have woken me to help clean up down here.”

“Oh no, can’t let a guest clean up after their own party!  Besides, you could probably use any rest you can get before starting to travel again.  Any ideas on which direction you want to head?”

“I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I’m not ready to head back home yet, but going into Bosco is probably a bad idea.  I guess I could continue along the Bosco-Seven border and head east some more.  I’ve never had any reason to head that direction before.”

“Well, I’m biased about Seven, so whatever I say, just assume it’s good things about my home country.  It gets interesting once you get into Iceberg, though.  The land is pretty barren, at least the parts of it that I’ve seen, but you’d be surprised how hard it can be to see something hiding, even when the land is mostly flat.  Stella isn’t much better unless you’re along the coast.  And that’s about as far as I’ve been.  Haven’t really considered going into Joya or through there into Desierto for any reason.”

“I honestly hadn’t thought about how far I wanted to keep traveling or if I wanted to go to any particular countries.  I was just going to anywhere not home.”

“Well, it’s not as if you have to destination in mind, so I guess head in whatever direction looks good.  If you want to go ahead and get packed up and ready after breakfast, then I’ll have the cooks make up a travel pack of food for you.”

“You don’t have to….”

“Stop it,” she said.  “We aren’t about to send a guest off without supplies.  And it’s not like packing up some meals and trail food is going to break the guild or anything.  So I’ll take care of that after we’re done eating here.”

She gave him such a stern look when Laxus tried to protest further that he just nodded and turned back to his food.  The rest of the meal was filled with the chatter of the two girls and anyone else who wandered down to grab something to eat before heading off somewhere else.  The four of them spent a comfortably long time lingering over breakfast before they couldn’t put off getting up any longer.  Ciel gathered up their dishes and headed off to the kitchen with Ino helping out.  Shira grabbed Laxus’ hand and announced she was going to help him pack, pulling him towards the stairs.

Packing too far longer than it should have but Laxus didn’t really mind.  Shira “helped” him gather all his belongings and when she thought he wasn’t looking, he saw her slip a note into the pocket of his pack.  He smiled to himself and kept on folding the shirt he held, promising to himself that he’d keep her note close, whatever it said.  When he was finished packing, Shira insisted on trying to carry his pack down the stairs by herself.

Arriving back in the main hall, Laxus told himself it was a good thing he didn’t carry anything particularly breakable in his pack.  Shira finally gave up on her efforts to carry the bag and instead ran over to where Ciel and Ino were waiting with another bag sitting on the table next to them.  

“I put some cookies in there for you,” Ino stage whispered to him as he was stowing the bag of food in his pack.  “But don’t eat them all at once, okay?”

“I won’t,” he said, giving her a smile.  “I’ll only eat them one at a time after lunch, so that I can think of you each day.” The little girl’s face lit up at his words.

“All right, you two, he’s never going to make it out of town at this rate, and I still need to talk to him about some things,” Ciel said.  “So finish saying your good-byes and then go play with the other children, okay?”  The girls grumbled but then climbed up on the table to give him hugs and sloppy kisses before running off.

“Sorry about that.  I know they’ll miss you but I was afraid they’d keep finding ways to keep you from leaving,” she said.  “Oh!  Not that I’m trying to get rid of you!  Uhhh…”

Laxus laughed at her consternation and led the way out the front door.  He waved good-bye to the few other members of the guild who hadn’t let the late night change their routines.  Ciel trailed behind him carrying another package and a folder of papers.  Despite the early hour, the field outside was bathed in early morning light, the soft rays highlighting everything in gold.

They walked slowly down the hill and into town, enjoying the sounds of the town waking up.  The cobblestone streets were still shrouded in shadows; the sun blocked by the plateau.  Small birds hopped around the town square looking for crumbs, scattering as they stopped to sit at an outdoor café.

“So I have a few other things for you,” Ciel said, handing over a folded piece of tan fabric.  “First is this – it’s a cloak made by Mera.  Her specialty is spell-woven clothing, and this cloak will either keep you warm or keep you cool, depending on which command you use.   Plus it’s waterproof.”  Laxus looked at her in surprise before unfolding the cloak and holding it up.

“She makes these?” he said.  The cloak looked plain but looking closely, he could see a faint tracery of spell runes along the edges of the hood and down the front.

“Yep, and makes the buyers pay through the nose for them, too!” she said cheerfully.  “Luckily, she had one available and wanted you to have it.  She said it was thanks for helping out at the mines.”

“I wish I’d known last night so I could thank her in person,” he said.  “I really appreciate the thought.”

“She thought you’d like it.  Next is this.”  Laxus picked up the folder she put down before him and opened it up.  “This information came in some time last night, so I haven’t done more than look over it quickly, but you should have a copy as well.  It’s everything we’ve been able to find out about the mine and what was going on there.

“The townsfolk really were kept in the dark because whoever was doing this didn’t want to cause suspicion so close to their base, is our guess.  A few of the local constables have disappeared,  mostly low-level guys though, so we’re pretty sure they weren’t running things.  Auntie’s having it looked into further though to see if we can follow the trail more.

“And last – the mineral they were mining.  It really doesn’t seem to be anything special, unless you spell it to hold energy, then it’s very special.  From the experiments that one of our researcher mages has been doing, this will gather and hold any kind of energy you want and it doesn’t seem to fade away.  So put a spell on it to gather sunlight and it will burn all night long, giving a nice source of light.

“But they also said it could be made to hold other kinds of more destructive energy and it can be set up with a trigger word.”

“A bomb?”

“That’s what they think it was mostly being used for.  We haven’t figured out where it’s all been sold to, but a good guess is someone in Bosco is sending these gems out of their country.”

“Why?  Just to cause unrest in other countries?”

“We aren’t sure, but it’s still being looked into.”  Ciel sighed before continuing. “We have heard from some of the parents for the kids, so those folks are on their way here.  It’ll be good if we can reunite all the children with their families, at least.”

“Any word about Ino or Shira’s parents?”

“We have a lead on Ino’s parents but nothing so far about Shira’s.”  Ciel stared at the tabletop, poking the final small bag sitting in front of her.  “I’m not sure what we’ll do if we can’t find them.”

“You’ll figure it out; you’ve done a good job taking care of her so far, haven’t you?”

“I guess so.  Still....” she shook her head and smiled. “Here’s the last gift for you.”  The bag clicked when she pushed it towards him.

“Money?  I don’t need any though,” he said.

“Well, it’s not a gift, not really.  The mayor said it last night, but I was actually on a missing person job when I was caught and taken to the mine.  And it turns out that the person I was looking for had also been captured, so the job was completed.  But I couldn’t have done it without your help, so you’re entitled to half the reward.  It’s only fair.”  She held her hand up as he tried to speak.  “Seriously, it’s yours.  Besides, I know the guards took any bit of money you had, so you’re broke because of that.  Now you’re not.”

“If it’s in payment for a job and not charity, then fine.  Besides, you’re right, I don’t want to continue my journey broke if I can help it.”

While they’d talked, the sunrise had slowly banished the shadows from the market square and more people started to fill the streets.  Some birds still hopped around looking for crumbs but the majority had flown off, disturbed by the increased traffic around them.  They sat not talking for a while, sipping their tea and avoiding the moment he’d have to leave.

“I suppose I should get going.  I don’t want to lose too much of the day if I can help it.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.  I’ll walk with you to the edge of town, if that’s all right.”  

Laxus packed his new cloak into the top of his bag and placed the sack of coins deep inside along with the folder.  Despite the brightly shining sun, the overnight chill still hung in the air, making the heavy furred coat he wore over his shoulders feel comfortable.  He slung the bag over his shoulder and followed Ciel east down the street.  By the time they reached the edge of town, the shadows were almost completely banished from the streets and the chill was gone from the air.

“Well, this is the edge of town,” Ciel said awkwardly.  “Umm, if you keep heading down this road, it eventually turns more east and parallels the border with Bosco.  Be careful though, bandits from there like to raid the border areas.”

“I’ll be careful.  And you need to pick your future jobs more carefully because I won’t be there to save you again.” Laxus smiled to take any sting out of his comment.  “If I can, maybe I’ll come back this way when I return home.  If that’s all right with you.”

Instead of replying, Ciel reached up to frame his face with her hands, pulling him down into a kiss.  Laxus slid his arms around her waist and held her closer, barely hearing the calls from merchants rolling past them on the road.  They stood together for a long moment before she stepped back, giving him a wavery smile.

“Safe travels, Laxus,” she said. “Don’t get yourself into too much trouble.”

“I won’t,” he said.  Before she could move away again, Laxus pulled his coat from his shoulders and swirled it around her, holding it closed and trapping her arms in the thick folds of fabric.  He kissed her again, pressing his lips to hers in a quick, hard motion and then stepped away.  “Take care, Ciel.”  

He turned and started walking down the road, not looking back to see her reaction.  As the road started to curve away towards the east, he felt a breath of cold breeze touch his cheek.  A flurry of snowflakes flew about him for a few seconds before they disappeared into the air.  He turned then to see her still standing at the edge of town.  With a quick wave, he headed down the road again.