ᴇᴛᴇʀɴᴀʟ •• ғᴀɪʀʏ ᴛᴀɪʟ²

21

"Nee-san, my swimsuit!"

Rae gritted her teeth and dodged her head when there's a shark coming after her. She had heard Kashima yelling at fishes to not let them escape as they were just like humans from the other day that tried to hurt the Water God. "Lucy, Haruka, I'm sorry." Before they could question her why, Rae had thrown her to Natsu and Gray just in time before the shark could grab them with its teeth. Rae bounced her feet on its skin and gracefully avoided its bashing tail. Her hands grabbed the fin to twirl her body around it. She had to buy time for the rest to escape.

"Rae!"

"Coming!" The girl shouted and for a moment, the shark could feel itself being stunned and paralyzed once that girl laid her red eyes on her. Were her eyes red before? Samemi, the shark knew they weren't.

Rae swam to others and they hid in a tunnel underground. It seemed like there was a hall ahead. She did notice that the moment Gray brought up the Water God, their attitude changed. "Here, Lucy." She gave her the jacket she's wearing and Natsu asked her if she's not feeling hot because she had been wearing full clothes for a while now. Bella rolled her eyes at the way he thought. "I'm alright, Natsu." Rae gave him a smile. She then spoke about there could be humans visiting them before.

Haruka furrowed her eyebrows. "Huh? But where'd they go?"

"What if the fishes ate them?" Happy shivered and Bella smirked, saying the fishes could be having their revenges.

Carla knocked the bat's head. "Don't say scary stuff like that!"

Lucy tapped her fingers on her chin. "We can't hurt them since they are probably just following what their religion tells them. They didn't really seem particularly evil or anything." They were told that people of Elmina worshipped the Water God Dragon once and they could be worship now as well. However, Lucy was persistent to find the one that took her top, saying she wanted to write 'pervert' on its forehead. Although the fishes didn't seem evil, they were there to defeat the dragon.

Rae shook her head. "As far as I know, seal can be many things."

"Nee-san is right!" Lucy grinned. "Exterminating them, neutralizing them, literally sealing them with a seal and even imprisoning them could all be considered sealing the five dragons. We weren't told the specifics of the 'sealing' we were asked to perfofm." If the Water God Dragon was a rampaging angry God, they could convince him to quiet his anger and calm down and that would technically be sealing him. There might be a peaceful way to resolve all this.

That's true to Rae but she couldn't help thinking there might be something more. The town of Elmina seemed very peaceful, what if they were wrong? Rae rubbed her temple and looked ahead, her eyes saw Natsu sulking at the corner for unable to fight dragons as Erza was persuading him. Not all dragons were evil and they fought not to defeat them but to survive them, that's what she told him. "Fine, I get it. Once we figure out what exactly each of these dragons are, I won't hurt them." Natsu grumbled.

"But if they so much as put a scratch on any on my friends, I swear I'll slay them all!"

Rae chuckled at his simplicity. That's adorable of him but first, they needed to know whether the Water God Dragon was a friend of foe and they had to know more about this town. They had to clear the air with fishes and Lucy asked Gemini to transform them into fish. Joining them on this journey, Rae was beginning to doubt her decision. First, she witnessed a fish became a person, then they got chased by fishes and now she had became a fish herself. Natsu told them to split up to gather intel and Gray however, grew concerned about Rae being alone.

"I'll come with you, Rae."

She was about to refuse but then again, Gray was the only one who knew her secret. She had no choice. "Haruka, Wendy, Bella, Carla, stay close to Erza alright?" Her daughter nodded and Rae went ahead with Gray, she heard him let out a scoff, saying they looked like reverse mermaids as they had their human heads with fish bodies. "But your small pectoral fins look cute." It's true, whenever Gray talked, automatically his fins flapped around and Rae held back the urge to pull them, knowing she can't do that with that body.

"You, over there!"

Rae turned around and there was Kashima glaring at them, asking if they had found the humans yet. Luckily, he didn't recognize them and that fish immediately gave them an order to look for the humans. But before that, Rae did ask him about the humans they found the other day and both Fairy Tail mages were puzzled when he boldly said that the human they caught before will be sacrificed to their Lord Water God. As if things happened right on time, there's a racket happening on the other side and Gray held Rae's fish body tightly as the blow was too strong.

Said, Lord Water God had descended.

"Lucy, Natsu." Rae looked at the ruined place ahead worriedly. Knowing her behavior, Rae would have gone after them immediately and that's what Gray did, he took her fin and swam to their location, leaving Kashima behind. However, when they got there, Rae could catch a figure of a woman attacking her sister and if it wasn't because of Gray, her sister would have been injured. Gray froze the woman and Lucy changed them back into humans. Rae looked at her surroundings, there were freshly cuts of sea serpent. No doubt, it was that woman's act. "Is this the Lord Water God?"

Kashima screamed in frustration. "How terrible! Lord Water God's servant has been slayed! This servant brings sacrifices to the Lord and now he's been killed! How horrible! The Lord will be furious."

"I see. I assume getting mad will prompt him to show himself, no? I suppose cutting up that serpent wasn't useless as I thought." The ice shattered. She went to the closest person.

Rae shot her hand outward, screaming her sister's name. "Lucy!" She pushed her out of the way and closed her eyes once the hand was an inch away from her face. But, things were good as Erza had saved her from that impact. The redhead clashed her sword with her hand, though they were all surprised to see another man interrupted that battle. He blocked the sword with his head and, apparently he was a Dragon Eater as well. Similar to that woman. Unlike her, he was the Armor Dragon. Rae couldn't deny their strengths. They were definitely powerful.

Natsu spilled them what he knew about those guys and he could only guess that they were after the Water God Dragon too. These two guilds were about to have another duel when the water suddenly changed tide and it's being parted. During that chaotic moment, Rae managed to catch a pair of slinted snake eyes on a body of a human. Kashima did claim that was the Lord and Rae could feel the overwhelming power. That man, he had some kind of tattoos on his right eye like Jellal. But there's one thing she knew for sure, he didn't habor any bad intentions on them.

22/5/22