Counter Chaotic (Nalu)

Prologue I - Midnight

Long Time Skip: ⋆꙳•̩̩͙·:*¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨*:·•̩̩͙꙳⋆

Short Time Skip: ༺☆༻

Natsu's POV

It is a new moon tonight, or, as I name it, day zero of my version of whatever month it is. The weather these days reminds me of the death machines in amusement parks they call roller coasters. They say it is meant to bring out some thrill and make it "pure adrenaline", but trust me, it brought out nothing but my breakfast from earlier that day and dinner from the day before. It was pure torture.

Yeah, yeah. I know. This guy is a complete idiot. He knew he had motion sickness and went on a freaking roofless train running on rails that did somersaults in the sky anyway. Well, you can't blame me. I was bored out of my mind that day, that month... Some day, some month... Whatever.

I don't care much about dates and times. That would change soon, I will make it change, for better or worse.

Shivering in the cold, I wrap my handmade brown-bear-skin cloak tighter around my body, eyeing the abundance of wooden objects around me. I can effortlessly start a fire anywhere around here, but my stomach voices a resounding and firm "no" through my head. It sounds like a million bells echoing through space, like lava pouring onto my frozen brain. It hurts too much to think.

So I inch forward, step by step, passing dozens of shops and houses with the promise of delicacies behind their unbreakable, shackled doors.

A bump on the road catches me off guard. I stagger and topple over onto the pavement. Pain shoots through my knees; warm liquid runs down my shins. I wave the metallic scent away from my nostrils, grit my teeth, and push my body off the ground. Then I let my consciousness be taken over by a sequence of robotic orders that only my body understands

And the first order is to cast everything aside. 

My legs transform into numb slabs of flesh and bones, no nerve endings, no veins, just two legs told to shuffle forward, again and again. I am not thinking. I am not even walking. I am just stubbornly moving, not because I am brave and not because I am strong, but because I am an idiot. Because I am simply unable to give up.

'One more step', I will say to myself, 'just one last step', and then I will say it again because there is no one more step or one last step, only the closing distance between me and hope. There is only more effort; more energy; more speed; more action, over and over.

༺☆༻

According to a sign I saw a few hours ago, I am in a village named Magnolia. I don't know much about this place, except their forest has nothing but massive monkeys, and they gave me stomach aches. Oh, and I tried looking for a river or something to quell my thirst, so I did what any sensible person would do. Follow the scent of fish. Well, I found the fish. They taste disgusting and "swam" (more like flew) through the air in a valley or cliff. What the f*ck?!

It has been three days since I was near food, water and civilization. I don't think I would even make it to the morning. I need a nap badly, but if I fall asleep here on the street, I won't be able to wake up again.

Even so, this is a good place for sleeping but nothing else. This town is so quiet at nighttime that there is not even a bit of chaos for me to savour. It will be going down on my mental list of worst sites on Earthland if it is the same way in the morning, if I can hold on 'til the morning, that is. So I guess it is to stay on the list for now.

I sigh, my breath fogging up in the air before dissipating. Looking up at the moonless sky, I hope dawn is nearing, but just in case it is not, I start making my way to what feels like the centre of the town. Usually, there will be food available in an open building there. At least, I hope there is.