Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 48

"So they will end up in jail?" Felix asked. "Like... Great-grandpa and grandpa?" he asked and he looked a bit sad.

"Yeah", Laxus said. "Like them. If you do evil stuff, you go to jail."

"I'm never going to do something like that", Felix swore and Chester nodded.

"That is really good to hear", Freed smiled.

One day Felix and Chester would learn about their past as well, what all they had done. Hopefully that wouldn't happen before years later, when they were old enough to hear about it. Right now everything was pretty much black and white to them, it would be hard to try to explain why things went like they went, how they did bad things and weren't in jail because of it.

"We're going to protect Fairy Tail as well", Felix decided. "We will help as much as we can."

"We're going to find that man, what was his name, and then we're going to get answers", Chester nodded determined.

"Yeah, we're gonna do that", Laxus smiled.

The whole day they mostly walked. They stopped few times only to eat something and sometimes Felix and Chester were carried so they wouldn't get too tired. It was finally evening once they stopped and set up two tents, getting ready to sleep. Well, before that Felix and Chester were begging so they could go to swim at least a little while so right now they were playing with Laxus and Bickslow while Freed, Roscoe and Evergreen took care of dinner and other things.

"If only we could spend a day here and enjoy all the sun", Evergreen whined while sitting down.

"We don't have that kind of time", Freed said and he slowly moved the laddle in the kettle, while staring at the big forest.

It looked like the further they walked, bigger it got. The mountains were further so there was even bigger area for the forest. Tall dark spruces looked like they were trying to reach clouds and under them there were lots of smaller trees and bushes. As the sun started to set, all shadows became even darker and the whole forest was overflowing with ominous ambiance.

Freed was always careful when in a new place, but rarely he felt this uneasy and it made his skin crawl. This truly was a prime example of a deep dark forest familiar from fairy tales.

"I can honestly say, I'm really happy this time I don't need to sleep alone", Evergreen confessed and Freed looked at her surprised. "Would you like to sleep alone?" she asked when seeing that look.

"... I would if I had to, but no, I wouldn't like it either", Freed had to agree.

After the dinner was ready they started to eat and by then it was getting so dark already it was better to start sleeping. After walking a whole day none of them didn't really need to wait for sleep to come.

It was early morning when Freed woke up, as someone shook his hand and he raised his head looking at Bickslow.

"What...?" he murmured but the seith mage raised his finger against his lips, hushing him.

Freed took his coat and sword, leaving Laxus, Felix and Evergreen to sleep in the tent as he silently got out.

"What?" he asked again, this time quietly and he tied up his slightly messy hair.

"I found something", Bickslow grinned. "Something interesting."

The rune mage was confused but he followed after his friend. They walked along the shore until there were few big rocks and they climbed on top of them. After they got up, Freed looked around and he saw what Bickslow meant.