VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

15. Rocky Run

"Eir? EIR??"

"Eir, what's going on? I heard yelling! I heard something break!"

Oh, better deal with that.

"Don't worry, just a bunch of idiots. Nothing I couldn't outrun--"

"Run? Eir, you had to run??"

"Hey c'mon, I can't exactly do anything while I'm holding a kid--"

"You're holding a WHAT?!"

Ughh, god save him. "She's uh-- a survivor I found. I just left Nilhe, and I'm going to take a detour to Misyo to drop her off at the doctor's."

"Uh," the voice was a little hesitant, but Master cleared his throat. "Sounds like a lot happened yesterday. Are you unharmed, Eir?"

Eir blinked. "Yeah."

"That's great news, then," Master said,and somehow, Eir could hear the smile that was punctuated by it. "Stay safe, son. When you get home, let's all go on a vacation!"

Eir flushed, "what do you mean, vacation," he hissed, blushing-- Master sometimes called the other members son or daughter too, and somehow every time, the reaction is similar.

(Maybe it's because Master's never held Ivan in the same regard...)

"And why are we celebrating? It's nothing new-- ah, enough! I'm hanging up!"

"Bye, Eir!"

"We love you!"

"Shut up!" he sneered at that obnoxious Macao voice in the background. Hanging up immediately, he shoved it angrily in his pocket and focused on the road.

A smile tickled the corners of his mouth, but he wasn't going to admit it.

-

-

Having a guild mark was a very useful thing.

"You have the same mark as the guy that came by a week ago!" the nurse exclaimed, entirely enthralled.

Eir's eyebrow twitched. A Fairy Tail Mage this far out?

"What did they call him... ah, yes--" another spun his finger around, "the strongest man in the West!"

"Gildarts?" Eir asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes, that's it!"

Eir facepalmed. Yeah, figures. With his reputation, Gildarts was in fact quite well known as the strongest in Fiore, and by extension the entire west region-- but seriously?

"Oh god, he really came here? What is that old fart doing?" he muttered. Gildarts had the tendency to just run off a little too far sometimes, so Master told Eir to tug on his leash a little... Eir will have to make a detour for him later.

"You know him?"

"Uh, yeah. We're from the same guild."

Eir turned to the girl that was lying on the bed. Running a hand through her very magenta hair, he sighed. This girl didn't look that much younger than Cana, so he could only hope that she would be fine...

"The doctor will be here soon," one of the nurses told him, "thankfully enough, we had a spell master nearby. She should be in safe hands."

Sighing in relief, Eir looked through the papers he found buried with the girl. He sat down by the bed, nursing his warm cup of tea and finally catching a break from his long trip.

The papers were kept in, with another barrier. It's one that prevents dust, fascinatingly enough. This was dispelled with a simple push at the center of the circle, and with one more push, the barrier came right back up.

"Barrier magic," he read through the papers, admiring the extended notes, theories, equations... he found the signature at the end. "Professor Blendy."

An indestructible shield that no force could break, as a safehouse. Then there was an intangible shield that deflected intangible things, keeping the effects of time away. Two forms of the same magic, for different uses.

This was amazing. It's an entirely new form of magic-- magic to protect.

Eir put the papers down.

This belongs to the girl, he realized-- not to me.

He had no right to read the research her father spent his life writing down, so he put it on the desk, set up the barrier, and set his bag over it so people would know it belonged to him.

"Are you leaving?" the nurse asked. "The girl aside, you have quite a temperature, you know?"

"Hm? Ah, it's normal for me," Eir assured her, putting a very cold hand on his neck, suddenly realizing the little ache in his head came with a fever.

He dug around his bag and retrieved his cookies.

"I'll be back," he said, tucking his sword in his belt. "Got a little more work to do," he said, picking up his job scroll and checking the location of the nearest town on the map. "Hohen is nearby, so I'll need to do a damage report on that side."

The nurse looked on worriedly, but didn't stop him.