Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 79

The ship kept sailing through the sea, heading towards Hargeon. There was nothing but blue water around them and it would still take a few hours before they would see any land.

They all stayed at the deck where it was a bit easier for Laxus and Roscoe. They could lie down, close their eyes and imagine they were anywhere else but on a ship. It did make sailors amused, but it was actually pretty common to see something like that. Usually there were at least one passenger who would get seasick. Some preferred staying outside to have as much of fresh air as they could, some wanted to lock inside and just lie down on their beds.

Freed was sitting down on a deck, staring somewhere far at the sea and his long fingers were gently tousling Laxus' hair. It calmed him, as the lightning dragon slayer kept his eyes tightly shut his head on Freed's lap. If they would stay like this the rest of the journey, he might survive.

Green hair moved and Freed looked at the dark clouds that were forming.

"Wind is getting stronger", he said.

"Yeah", Laxus grunted. "The storm is coming closer, it's most probably going to hit us."

"We should go inside in that case, it's dangerous to stay outside."

"I won't go inside before it's absolutely necessary."

"I figured you might say something like that", Freed huffed but he smiled. "And the ship is sturdy, I'm sure it can handle a storm."

"God I'm gonna hate that..." Laxus groaned, imagining all the waves and he almost threw up.

Evergreen was sitting on a nearby barrel and looking at Freed and Laxus.

"You two are just so cute", she smiled and Laxus growled something. "I'm not lying."

"Shut up, Ever", Laxus said.

The brunette just chuckled and looked at the dark water. She wasn't really a big fan of ships either. Actually, only one who really liked sailing was Bickslow but that wasn't anything new. Bickslow was always the one who wanted to try everything and he usually liked what he was doing.

Evergreen frowned slightly when looking at the waves and something felt off. She got down and walked to the railing, looking down and she only saw darkness in the water. She hoped there wasn't some sea monster lurking down there, spotting to attack their ship.

Over the wind, waves and creaking of the ship she heard small crackling. It was weird.

"Freed", she said and the rune mage looked at her. "Something's wrong."

Laxus sat up and Freed got on his legs, walking to Evergreen. Bickslow jumped down from the top of a pile of crates that had been tied down with strong ropes. Roscoe noticed something was going on and sat up, looking at them.

Freed stopped next to Evergreen and they listened.

"Like it's freezing", Bickslow said and he pulled down the hood of his robe. "But I don't see any ice."

Laxus grunted and he managed to get up, just to get thrown off his feet with the rest of them when the ship suddenly stopped.

"What the hell?" he snarled and they heard lots of confused and surprised shouts and questions of what was happening.

Freed got up and he looked around. The whole sea around the ship had been covered in dark purple...

"Quartz", he muttered.

"Moritz", Evergreen hissed and they heard a small whistling sound. Freed moved fast, pulling out his sword and smashing the purple amethyst spear that had been thrown towards them. Little fragments of amethyst dropped all around the deck and sailors were all coming out to see the crystallized sea.