3rd Person POV
"Ow!" (Y/N) winces from the pain of her shoulder. Gato carefully places the bandage around her swollen area.
"Hey now, don't be a wuss. It's your fault for overtraining. And you just had to run off with that girl, roll down a cliff, get kidnapped, and cause your shoulder to become even worse. Now it's gonna take a lot longer to heal than just a few weeks." Gato scolds. (Y/N) looks away from her, feeling a bit upset. Not with her Exceed, but with herself.
Both of them are inside a doctor's office. After the trolls were dealt with and the missing girls returned home safely, the Sabertooth Dragon Slayers have completed their mission. Although, Sting and Rogue had to dry themselves off from (Y/N)'s water attack. Better to be wet than dead, (Y/N) reminds the Twin Dragon Slayers.
It was clear how swollen her shoulder has gotten due to the purplish coloring on her (s/c) skin. The doctor has offered to treat her, but Gato insisted on treating (Y/N) herself. Nonetheless, the village doctor has offered any herbal remedies necessary to them.
"Almost done with the bandage." Gato reminds her partner. Sting, Rogue, and their Exceeds came inside to see how (Y/N) was doing. They came in just when Gato finishes bandaging the swollen shoulder.
"I can't believe you would run off like that. And take the village girl with you. And why didn't you tells us about your shoulder? How are you going to compete if your injury is shown?" Sting asks her harshly. Rogue is standing there watching his tag team partner, agreeing with what he said. Same goes for Lector, but Frosh feels so sorry for (Y/N).
"I figured it was just a minor injury. I didn't expect it get this much worse. So I ignored and went with you guys." (Y/N) weakly says. She was almost on the verge of tears, but she did not want out a single drop.
"I hear from Frosh and Lector that you can use Healing Magic. They claim you use it to cure your motion sickness. Why not use it to heal your shoulder?"
"Unfortunately, I can only use one Healing Magic spell. From what Ariella told me, this type of Healing Magic is meant to help me deal with motion sickness. She was supposed to teach me more Healing Magic, but she disappeared on July 7th." Not liking what was coming out of her mouth, Rogue began to spoke.
"So you lied about be able to use Healing Magic. And now you're stuck with a major injury. How do you expect to compete in the Grand Magic Games with your condition? If Master Jiemma finds out-"
The loud squeak of the chair pushed back and footsteps approaching the Shadow Dragon Slayer were wrapped up with a sudden smack on his face.
Silence.
"Shut up! I'm going to compete in the Grand Magic Games as planned. I'll rest my shoulder until then." Rogue harshly glares at her, but she doesn't back down. Anger is winning over her compared to sadness.
"Then how are you going to work if you're not using your shoulder?" Rogue asks as he clenches his jaw.
"I'll take small jobs or jobs that do not require much of my shoulder. And I will continue to learn Healing Magic. I don't know how, but there's always something even if Ariella is not with me right now. You two don't understand because you guys butchered your own parents."
With that, (Y/N) pushes them out of the way and leaves the room. Gato calmly flies after her. The rest of them were left speechless.
"Yeah! We finally got our reward." Lector cheerfully exclaims.
"And we're heading back home too." Frosh cutely cheers along.
"I wonder what I can get with his kind of money." Lector ponders to himself.
"How about a hot date?" Gato recommends. Lector bursts with a burning, blushing red face.
"No way! Why do I need to spend this on you?" Lectors tries to defend himself.
"I was being sarcastic. But I have to say, I never expected you to call me hot." Gato brings her bit of sass.
"Fro thinks so too." While the three Exceeds were deep in their own conversations, (Y/N) looks out the window. The train passes by several trees, a blue sky, and a bright yellow sun. Though the day was shining and great, (Y/N) felt guilty and sadden.
The mayor has thanked the members of Sabertooth for saving their missing girls and putting an end to the trolls' plan. The little girl thanked them for rescuing her big sister. They were payed the amount that was promised in the request. Yet, (Y/N) decided to return her share of the reward money to the mayor of the village. This brought confusion to everyone's faces.
"Why do you wish to give it back, child? You've earned it." the mayor asks. (Y/N) shook her head as her (h/c) hair bounces side to side.
"I'm sorry, sir. While I am grateful for the reward, I can not accept it. I brought one of your girls with me, almost put her in danger, got myself kidnapped, and my team were the ones who saved the girls. If anything, I was a distraction. Therefore, I should not be rewarded since I did not complete this mission." That brought shock to everyone. The little girl pulled away from her sister's hand and went up front so the Water Dragon Slayer can see her face.
"But you saved my sister and the rest of them. You helped them escape their cells." she spoke. A bit taken by the girl's outburst, she reagins her composure as she walks over to her, kneels down, and pats her soft head.
"Thanks for that. It's true that I got the keys and let them out, but getting kidnapped was not a part of the plan for me. The way I see it, the two rowdy boys did the work." The little girl awes at her. (Y/N) stands up and walks over to her team.
"Besides, you guys need that money more than I do. I believe you guys spend most of your savings for this reward." (Y/N) announces. The villagers cried a bit as they couldn't believe she figured that out.
Sting's POV
(Y/N) used her Healing spell, the only Healing spell she knows, to cure our motion sickness. Rogue and I were sitting with our partners while she was sitting with her own. She keeps looking out the window, with a bit sadness in her eyes. Great, she must be upset over what happened to her dragon.
Even though she had to go and say we killed our dragons to Rogue's face, she still doesn't know the whole truth. It's probably why Rogue is looking out the window p****d off. I decided to get up from my seat and go over to her. Rogue looked up to me from his deep thought.
"Where are you going?" he asks. I shove my hands into my pockets.
"I'm just going to chat with her for a bit." Rogue looked at me like I was crazy.
"Are you insane? After what she said to our face, you want to talk to her?"
"Look man, I know we look out for ourselves. But I wanna talk to her. I got questions for her that need answers. To be honest, it's been bugging me. Better to do it now than later." I went up and walk over to her. I must have startled her when I called her name and pulled her out from whatever she was thinking about. She looked at me with questioning look.
"Mind if I sit with for a sec?" She looks at me with a pout on her face. She tch'ed and looks out the window again.
"Let me guess, you want an apology as well. I already apologized to Rogue for slapping his face and treated you guys' motion sickness. What else do you -"
"I wanna know how you found out about the village's entire savings being used for our reward money." I took a seat as she finally calm down from getting into a temper tantrum. She took a deep breath after a long stare from her.
"I overheard one of the rescued girls talking with her parents after I left the room. She was arguing with her family about using their life savings in order to put it in the reward. They claim it was because they were desperate to get her back. It's amazing at how parents are willing to do anything for their children."
Parents... children...family... she's so hung up on the idea of family. Why does she feel like she wants to save everyone and pretend we're one big happy family.
"Look, I don't know why you murdered your dragons. And honestly, spare me the details about it for right now. When you really want to tell me why, I'll listen when I'm more calm to hear it. Otherwise, we'd be arguing about it from dusk till dawn. In the meantime, I'll be a big girl and apologize for not telling you about my shoulder."
"Alright. I'll forgive you... on one condition." She puts on her angry face. I swear, she looks like a dragon herself. It's kinda cute when she's ticked off.
"Now you want demands. Dang it, you guys are so picky. It's irritating." I held my hands out to gesture her to calm down. She is a hot-head more than a cool, calm Water Dragon Slayer.
"Hear me out. I only want you to let me know when you learned more Healing Magic."
"Why would I do that? If anything, I'd use you for a guinea pig." A chuckle escapes my lips.
"Think about it. If you learn Healing Magic, perhaps you could use that for heal your shoulder and use it as an advantage it for the Games." She was pondering the idea for a bit.
"I'll try. Perhaps, I could take a look through the library or something like that."
Maybe she's not so bad after all.