VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

16. Sulfur Valley

Hohen was attacked by Deliora a day and a half ago, resulting in a complete loss of contact with the outside world. No one local was willing to travel there, so they commissioned a wizard to delve into the area, just to see if there's anyone alive.

Hohen was a village in a valley. That meant descending a few hundred miles down an icy verge into the pits of hell, because these insane morons made a nest out of it.

Okay, fair enough. It's a nice little place to live in, it's wide, there's soil, there's sunlight, there's protection in the form of huge glacier walls, and you don't have to deal with the bullshit of the outside world. Except, Deliora kinda just strolled right through those iceberg walls and trampled over everything, but yeah.

He swallowed a cookie.

Sliding down the hill and making his way to the ground, he inspected the damage. There were monster-sized footprints around, and every house had a caved-in roof. Buildings were shattered like blocks, fields were trampled--

There was blood, and there were many, many bodies.

(They didn't run in time. Maybe they never thought they'd be attacked?)

Eir sighed. Looks like his report will be full of bad news... he picked up a piece of scrap wood from a house, inspecting the char-like marks on them.

Fire? That's strange. He sifted through the snow on the ground-- soot... and metal shards. Some of the wood looked strange, too. If this was Deliora's work, why were there signs of bombing? The smell of sulfur...

Maybe if he looked around a little more...

There's a shuffle of feet, and a shift in the rubble. Eir snapped forward, alarmed. Reaching for his sword, he straightened, turning to the noise.

"Who's there?!" he yelled.

He's met with an equally surprised pair of eyes. It's a woman, and she's dressed in considerably thin layers for winter...

Eir's eyes run to the two children at her feet-- one with dark blue hair and one with silver hair--and the tension in his shoulders ease. He removes his hand from his sword, and turns to face the strange trio.

The woman had short, dark purple hair, and once she had a good look at Eir, she smiled.

"You don't look like you're from this village," the woman observed, "what are you doing so far in Danger Zone, boy?"

One of the boys, the one with silver hair, suggested, "stealing from the corpses?" and the one with dark blue hair clicked his tongue, scowling.

Ah, how adorable. Eir wanted to pinch their cheeks until they said sorry.

Instead, Eir reached at his shirt, lifting the edge and showing off his guild mark. "I'm a mage," he explained, "came here to do a damage report."

"A mage?" the woman raised a brow, "I haven't seen that mark around before."

"Hm? Yeah, I'm from Fiore in the west," Eir untied a sack from his belt, "I could hand you the job scroll if it'll make you trust me a little more."

The woman watched, slightly in awe, as a stack of scrolls spilled from the pouch.

"No, it's fine," she said. And Eir crouched down to gather them up again. She stepped forward, putting a hand on her kids' heads as they followed. "My name is Ur. I'm just a traveller, and these two kids are Lyon and Gray. Say hi, boys."