In Secret (Sequel to Behind the Scenes)

Freefalling

She wanted suddenly to be out there. To feel that wide open space. Gajeel called her his little bird, right? 'Wha' would it feel like to fly?'

The air was cold and thin on the side of the mountain, but it didn't bother Sam in the slightest. She'd been colder before. She was shrieking with laughter and whooping as loud as she could as she flew threw the air. Is this wha' birds feel? Wind whipped through her hair as Sam threw her arms wide, try to touch as much of the openness as possible. She could feel the air getting a little warmer as she plummeted to the ground, but it didn't even register in her adrenaline flooded brain.

The bag of climbing gear on her back aided gravity's pull on the small girl, her speed increasing by the second. Sam rolled herself through the air a few times before realizing it was disorienting her. Stuck on her back for a moment, she reveled in the silence that the roar of the wind caused in her mind. It was literally blank, unable to form thought past the freedom that was exhilarating her. She felt like she'd been falling forever, although it had been mere minutes. She flipped one final time, just to see the ground rushing to meet her.

The pace was a little alarming, surely she wasn't that close? She could see Sarah sitting on the stump below her, scrambling to get up as she saw the younger girl's approach. Taking a quick breath, Sam screwed her eyes shut and concentrated on the ground below her, picturing herself there. She still wasn't sure how exactly her magic worked, but if she could picture a place, she could go there.

Sam opened her eyes, blinking quickly at the wind that still stung them. Shit! She concentrated again, finally starting to panic as she ran out of sky to fall through. She took a deep breath and pictured herself standing safely in front of Sarah. There was an abrupt lack of air rushing past her face, but Sam still felt herself moving forward. She shuffled her legs quickly, running and stumbling forward, squeaking and staring at Sarah with wide eyes. The older woman had finally managed to stand, and grabbed Sam as she came crashing into her, both of them falling to the ground. As quickly as she could, Sarah sat up, shifting the young girl to the ground next to her. "Are you okay?!" She asked, frantically looking her over for injuries.

Sam nodded, shaking slightly as adrenaline started to fail her. She looked around, as if to reassure herself she was on the ground, and started giggling. Sarah looked at her wide eyed for a moment before beginning to laugh as well. When they finally calmed down and caught their breath, the older woman looked up at the mountain and back at the girl in front of her. "Child, what on earth happened? Why didn't you use the lacrima?" Sam ducked her head sheepishly, blushing a little. "Well, I couldn't get it to come down. I think it jus' likes ya, since ya own it an' all. So... I... uh... I wanted to know wha' it feels like t'fly... so I jumped. Almos' couldn't 'port..."

"Ah, I see. That's strange about the lacrima. But I'm glad you made it down safely. I'm assuming you forgot to consider your momentum?" Sarah looked at Sam as a confused look crossed the girl's face. "Child, teleporting may negate SOME momentum, but if you're moving when you jump, you should still be moving when you arrive at your destination. Did you not know this?" Sam shook her head, blushing again. "Now I feel dumb." She hung her head, starting to stand up and unload the pack she'd brought down.

"Don't feel dumb! That wasn't my intention. You just should learn all you can about your magic before you try to do something dangerous like that again, okay? Thank you, for getting my gear. Did you have fun 'flying'?" Sarah smiled warmly as she began to rummage through her pack, getting everything settled before she slung it onto her back and shifted to push herself up from the ground. Sam offered her a hand up, steadying her friend. "Shall we go, then?" Sarah settled into an easy stride with her crutches, heading back down the road to towards her house. "Want I should 'port us?" Sam asked as she bounced along next to the blonde woman. Simply shaking her head, Sarah continued walking. "I think you've done enough, for the moment. I don't want you to strain yourself."

Their journey went along in companionable conversation and occasional silence, as it had on the way to the mountain. Even though Sarah had told her not to strain herself, Sam resumed her hopping around, teleporting from one marvel to the next, stopping in the field from before to see if she could find her rabbit friend. The trip was uneventful, aside from Sam teleporting in front of a herd of deer and startling them into a minor stampede. The stag lowered his horns at her before she squeaked and teleported into a tree, and he snorted up at her before he took off after his does.

Giggling once again, Sam popped up next to Sarah as they neared the older woman's home. "I have your payment inside, do you want to have some lunch before you leave? I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. And all I've done is walk. You must be starving!" She glanced over at the girl, smiling as she watched her enthusiastic bouncing. She thought for a moment, trying to remember if Sam had actually just walked anywhere in the entire day. She was pretty sure she'd only been jumping. Just as this thought crossed her mind, Sarah heard a cry and a thump. She turned to where Sam had been a moment before, but the girl was gone. "Ow, ow, ow!"

Sarah whipped back to look the other way, almost losing her balance on her plaster cast, to see the girl laying on the ground, her ankle caught in the branches of a massive tree trunk. Seeing that she wasn't in any danger, Sarah hobbled over to stand next to her, looking down and stifling a giggle. "Having difficulties?" Sam opened her eyes, a few crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks into her hair. "Oh, honey! I'm sorry!" Sarah assessed the injury and quickly reached for the girl's foot. "This might hurt, but only for a moment." With one hand, she carefully grasped Sam's foot, pulling it free of the tree's branches. The tiny redhead whimpered softly, closing her eyes as more tears escaped.

Sarah slid down the trunk to sit next to Sam, continuing to hold her foot up in the air. "Well, I did feel we had a certain camaraderie, girlie, but I didn't think you wanted to be like me this badly..." She managed to keep a straight face as she said this, right up until the girl laying next to her started laughing. In between gasps for breath, Sarah managed to tell her, "It's only a sprain, anyway, not a break. You'll be okay in a few weeks." They laughed a few minutes longer before Sarah noticed the setting sun. She carefully propped the injured foot up for a moment before pulling some bandages from her bag and wrapping it for stability. Then, with great effort, she stood, leaning down to help Sam up as well. "Come on then. Think you can teleport a couple of gimps back this last little bit?" With a smirk, Sam grasped her friend's arm and blinked. When they opened their eyes, the girls fell backwards onto Sarah's couch. "Oh yeah, I can 'port anywhere I've been before, so long as it ain't too far away. Dunno my range yet."

Back in her home, Sarah hobbled around to better splint Sam's ankle before giving her the jewel she'd earned. "Try to keep that foot up as much as possible, and put ice on it from time to time if the swelling is bad." Sam nodded, already planning to have Saki heal her, but of course her new friend wouldn't know about that. She tucked the jewel safely inside her clothes and stood. After deliberating a moment, she lurched forward to hug her employer. "Thanks. For ev'rythin' today." Sarah blinked in surprise before throwing her arms around the small girl. "Anytime, my friend. Once we're both healed up, we shall have many adventures together, yes?" Sam stepped back, smiling and nodding before giving a small salute and blinking out of Sarah's home.

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A/N Thank you so much for reading! We're almost to chapter 30! Like, what?! Also, 1.6K reads?! O.o I never even imagined! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I know I was awful and didn't post for a long time a while back, so I'm going to try to crank out a couple of chapters a week for the next few hoping to hit the 30th on Christmas! I'm thinking I've got about to 35 or 40 before this fic is finished. As always, shoot me a comment if you notice something, or if you like it! Much loves!