The Fires of Blood [A Fairy Tail Fan Fiction]

Part 9 - Waking to Rain

For the second time that day on that island, I had found myself all alone as I woke up. The pitter-pattering sounds of the rain outside of the cave greeting me as I slowly lifted my eyelids and sat up. It was dark outside as a result from the island being covered in dark rain clouds.

I looked around the cave and had confirmed that no one was there. That was a bad sign. It had either meant that Zeref had finally woken up and walked away on his own, or that the mysterious woman had found us and taken him again. Both options involved me not being able to get any information out of him. I still wanted, and possibly needed, to know why he seemed so familiar to me.

I slowly stood up in the cave, moving around and stretching my body out from shaving passes out on the uncomfortable cave floor. I felt the magic energy in my body being restored but...the magic inside of my body didn't feel like it completely belonged to me. It was a weird sensation, and I didn't know where it was coming from at all. But, I had to push on and get past it.

I started to walk out of the cave, before starting to run. I felt my feet splashing in the mud and the rain pouring onto my clothes and my skin as I made my way through the dark forest once more. I had been chasing Zeref around for hours now; My actions now where no different from before.

I didn't see anyone as I ran, at least not yet. I hoped everyone was okay. I was able to tell there was at least more than one enemy on the island, and that it was a group that was attacking. I just didn't know who it was...or what they were really after. But I think it had something to do with the melancholy man I had been running after this whole time.

My thoughts and emotions guided my actions, propelling myself forward in the downpour as I ran and ran as much as I could. Just when I was starting to get tired, I had gotten to the middle of a path in the forest. First looking around, I had noticed three bodies lying on the muddy ground.

Two of them I didn't know, and I assumed they were the enemy. One's skin was dark and clammy, seeming like he had been stricken with something. He....he also didn't appear to be breathing at all. But the other pink haired stranger seemed fine, just knocked out. She was laying next to my guildmate, Juvia, who was also passed out. Not dead, just passed out. I felt myself take an involuntary deep breath of the cool moist air.

Taking my attention off of the ground, I noticed the familiar black haired dark wizard with his back turned towards me. It appeared like he was walking away from the scene and walking away from me. I couldn't just let him leave, so I ran up towards him and shouted. "Zeref!"

It took him a couple moments but he eventually turned around to face me. He widened his eyes slightly when he saw me and looked almost stunned in place. It was fairly obvious that he hadn't expected me to be here at the moment. He didn't make any moved to start and walk towards me, so I took it into my own hands to attempt to approach him.

"I need to ask you some questions and I need them answered to the best of your ability..," I started to negotiate, not even knowing if Zeref would be compliant to my requests. I kept walking towards him "When I first saw you on this island, you said my name without me having to tell you...and I get this strange feeling like I've seen you in person before. Like I knew you before now."

Zeref was looking at me, his widened eye expression not having changed at all from when he had first seen me. He wasn't responding to me, but I was still moving closer to him. I didn't want to let him go this time when my questions were so close to being answered. He remained silent though, and I managed to get about two feet away from him as I waited for a reply.

He seemed to be deep in thought before parting his lips and speaking to me "We have met before Seika," He started to reply to me, just confirming my suspicions "But I can't tell you how. At least...not yet." I widen my eyes softly, opening my mouth in protest before I was prevented from speaking by his words again. "Now's not the right time. You should be more concerned about your guildmates, including Natsu, who is on the Grimoire Heart ship as we speak."

I widened my eyes at his words, getting a lot of information from it at once. How Natsu and some of my other friends were on a ship. One that belonged to Grimoire Heart. They must have been the ones who attacked the island, and the dark guild was probably here to seek the power of a dark wizard. Zeref's power, to be exact. It made some sort of sense now that I had almost all the pieces to put together.

Looking at Zeref, I opened my mouth to speak again. I was completely distracted by the chance that my friends could be fighting and getting hurt, along with potentially getting fatally injured as well. I had healing powers, so I should be there to help them. It seemed like Zeref wasn't going to give me any answers anyway, so I had to focus on the more important of the two. "The ship, where is it?" I asked.

I don't know why, but I could have sworn that Zeref seemed happy when I followed along with him completely changing the subject. He started to reply to me, "It's south-east from ou-" He was cut off by the familiar pang of energy that came from his body. I had seen this a couple times before, so of course, I knew what it would do. I feared for the lives of Juvia and the other enemy, so I knew I had to act quick.

Taking a big leap forward, I started to get to Zeref as quick as I could. I ran as the pressure of dark magic built around him. Once I reached him, I had to think quick. But, unfortunately, the only thing I could think of to get him far enough from the two girls was to push him backward. So, that's what I did. I used all of my force to push him back, resulting in myself falling down with him... We skidded along the dirt before I felt the black magi-filled sphere inflate around the both of us. My entire body felt painful and sore, but it wasn't anything I could handle. I also took note that it had been less painful than the first two times I had experienced it.

I held Zeref down as he was screaming from the magic while I kept my eyes shut. A few more moments had passed before the magic died down again and seemed to contract inside to Zeref's body. I slowly blinked my eyes open, looking down at my deep black scarf. Looking down to Zeref, I slowly got up and rubbed the back of my head "Sorry for pushing you down and everything, I just didn't know what else to do..."

Zeref slowly started to sit up on the ground, seemed to be unphased at all by what just happened. I then quickly turned to Juvia and the enemy and noticed the steady rise and fall of their chests. I had done it. They were still alive. I let out a sigh of relief before turning back to Zeref and speaking again. "Thank you for your help, I'll be going to the ship now."

I turned away from him before starting to run away from the area. But, a thought struck into my mind just before I left. I came to a slow stop, turning around and looking towards Zeref. "I..I just feel that we'll meet again. So, if and when we do, I expect answers to my questions." I gave him a soft smile before turning around again and racing off towards the direction where Zeref said the ship was.

I didn't look back at him again. He never replied.