Few days later Freed was following after Laxus. Even if it was early morning, it was snowing so harshly their surroundings were dark like it was evening already and they barely could see where they were going. They were following tracks so at least they wouldn't be able to get lost in this blizzard.
"I don't think that moss can survive when it's so cold here", Freed said and he looked behind them. They were followed by their whole guild and many volunteers of survivors who used to live in that now empty town.
"That's good for us", Laxus grunted and he was actually wearing his big dark coat. It was warm enough so the snow didn't really bother him at all.
The train had left them not far from Naava Town and the rest of the way they had to walk. They couldn't take a risk that the air in the town really was toxic and then everyone in train would die.
Freed yelped when again he almost fell but Laxus' arm was around him immediately, keeping him on his feet.
"Thank you", he smiled. They all had struggles to walk over huge piles of snow.
"Don't mention it", Laxus said and in the next second he fell down in the snow with cusses. Freed managed to hold his laugh, watching his angry husband who snarled and swiped some snow off of himself.
"Did you hurt yourself?" the green haired man smiled helping Laxus up.
"No", he grunted. "I hate this shitty weather", he said as another strong blast of wind almost made them all fall and he heard thumps as some of them did fall on the snow. He pulled Freed closer, wrapping his dark coat around them both.
"There's not much left and we will be in the town", Freed assured.
It was a long road but finally they got to the town. They stopped near the forest just in case, everyone ready to retreat immediately if the air would smell funny.
"Do you smell anything?" Freed asked looking at Laxus who tried to sniff the air along with other dragon slayers.
"Nothing", he said. "If there were mold, we would definitely smell it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Do you guys smell anything?" Laxus asked looking at Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue.
"Nothing", Wendy said and others nodded as they didn't sense anything as well.
"So it should be pretty safe to go there", Laxus grunted. "But only few of us should go first."
"I suggest only dragon slayers go with exceeds", Rogue said. "Since we can smell the mold if it's there."
"I agree", Gajeel nodded. "We can get quickly away from there if there's something suspicious around."
Laxus nodded.
"Then let's do that", he said and sparks of electricity ran down his spine. Huge lightning wings appeared on his back, waving in the air as if the lightning was alive.
Freed frowned worriedly while looking how the group of dragon slayers flew up and towards the town.
"Warren, make sure we can hear immediately if something happens", he said and Warren nodded.
For a while they waited in silence. It felt like minutes were crawling, every second felt like it lasted eternity. Cold wind was turning their limps numb and their clothes were slowly getting wet because of all the snow.
"You hear me?" they suddenly heard Gajeel's voice.
"Loud and clear", Levy assured.
"Good. I don't smell mold at the northern part of the town."
"No mold in east", Sting assured.
"Not in west either", Natsu said.
"The library mountain is clear as well", Wendy said.
"What about south and the middle of the town?" Roscoe asked.
"Nothing here", Rogue said and they heard Laxus grunting something agreeing.
It was such a relief and the townspeople who had came with them cheered. Since there was no mold and nothing smelled suspicious, the air wasn't poisonous.
"There are no much moss anymore", Laxus said. "And all that's left is frozen because of the weather."
"It's like these mountains are protecting our town", Roscoe smiled. "Now we can get rid of the moss before it can cause more damage."
"You can all come in the town but be careful", Laxus said.
"Be prepared when you come. It's not a beautiful sight", Natsu warned with a serious tone.
They all started to approach the town. Soon they were on its streets, looking around and Freed heard gasps. So many buildings were nothing but ruins anymore. Fire had destroyed most of the town and even though there were so much snow all around, they could see blackened houses and walls.
Crying was inevitable when the people who used to live in this town could see all the destruction. No matter how much white snow fell down from the sky it wasn't enough to cover what all horrible things happened here.
Freed moved his gaze when he saw corpses lying on the street. They had done their best yet there was so many lost lives... If only they had known about the attack sooner...
"Let's scatter around and investigate the whole town", Erza said. "If you see anything even slightly strange, inform others immediately. Do not walk alone", she commanded and others nodded. "Stay in groups of at least three people and do not touch anything if you're not sure what it is."
One after another they decided who would go with who. They decided it would be the best if at least one mage would go with those who had no magic. Freed was waiting for his group and soon a man and a woman stepped ahead. Freed frowned as he saw something familiar in that man with a black long hair...
"Ketkel", he said surprised when he recognized that face.
"So you do remember me", Ketkel chuckled. "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Justine. Oh, I mean Dreyar", he quickly corrected himself. "I heard about the wedding, congratulations."
"Thank you", Freed nodded with a smile. He had ended up taking Laxus' surname after all, it made things simpler. And if he was completely honest, it had been somewhat a dream of his to be called Freed Dreyar.
"I can go to another group if this is not okay", Ketkel assured. He had some really haunting memories of a certain lightning dragon slayer almost making him soil himself when he tried to approach the rune mage...
"It's alright, Ketkel. It's in the past. And you are?" Freed asked politely from the woman who smiled.
"My name is Milalai, nice to meet you", Milalai said. "So which way should we go?"
"I was thinking about going to see the library", Freed said and Ketkel and Milalai nodded.
"Freed!" they heard Levy's voice and looked at the tiny woman who came to them with two others. "You're going to the library right?" she asked.
"Yes", Freed nodded. "Do you want to come with us?"
"If you don't mind", Levy smiled. "It's a big area to investigate, better if there are more of us, right?"
"You're absolutely right", Freed agreed. "So let's all go."
It wasn't easy to walk through all snow and once they got near the once beautiful castle like library built in a mountain, there weren't just snow but all kinds of trash as well. Planks, rocks, glass shards, broken statues, doors, books, everything. It was really a challenge to walk over all of that and they had to be really careful not to hurt themselves.
Finally they found some stairs that were still solid since they had been hacked right through the mountain. Carefully they climbed up, feeling slightly nervous if the ceiling would hold. There was also a possibility that the other end of the stairs had collapsed and they had to go back.
Thankfully it hadn't collapsed and they could get out. They were in the deeper part of the library that was still looking good. Of course shaking had caused all the books to drop from shelves but considering how big the destruction was, this part was in a really good shape.
"Thank god", Milalai said relieved. "Only the outer part of the library collapsed."
"Be careful", Freed reminded. "Let's not do anything hasty. Some parts might not be sturdy enough to carry our weight so do not walk around carelessly."
They nodded and scattered around, not too far apart from each other. Freed walked around, keeping his hand on his sword just in case. Part of him was still worried that something might happen. Emmett, Ichabod and Humphrey all attacked so suddenly, they could never really know when they would appear next time. Everything seemed so calm right now so it felt like someone of them might attack at any second.
Freed felt shivers when remembering Humphrey. He was so glad Laxus didn't know what all happened. Laxus could get seriously jealous after all and with his instincts if he heard someone touching his mate in an inappropriate way... There would be a storm like never before.
Freed carefully stepped on stairs that lead down. He actually had a place where he wanted to go. This part of the library was oldest, as it had been started building from inside the mountain and slowly it had expanded until people had build that castle part of the library. Since this part was almost intact, there might be some books that could help him.
He wanted to know more about Netherworld Magic. According to Ivan there wasn't many who had used that magic so finding some information would be a challenge. It belonged to the category of Lost Magic so if here were any books about it, they would be here at the oldest part of the library. There were a whole chamber full of books about magic, some of them behind locks so that people couldn't read them without a permission if they held information of dangerous magic.
This was his change to read those books since there wasn't anyone to stop him. He followed the long hallway to the most deepest parts of the mountain library, opening doors and looking around his way.
Finally he stepped in the right chamber. There were many shelves full of books. He frowned when seeing all the dust. Even if there wasn't people to read these books because it was forbidden, they should still take care of them.
The rune mage stepped beside the shelves, his finger almost touching covers as it run over them. There really was all kinds of magic. One of those books he recognized as he had read it many times. Forbidden runes. But he had no interest to take that book ever again so he continued his way.
After searching for a while, Freed stepped out of the chamber and closed the doors. He had found one book that might held information. There was no time for him to read it here so he had to borrow it for a while. He would definitely return it later, right now it was important to learn more about Yuidose's magic and considering how dusty all the books were, no one would even notice if one of the books were missing.
Book hidden in his runes, Freed walked back to the others.
Laxus landed on the library as well, but on the higher parts of it. He could guess that Freed was investigating it inside already. He had to admit that he was slightly worried if this whole place might collapse after all so he was keeping an eye out.
He could see the whole town from here, even though it was still snowing harshly. It really wasn't a pretty sight. Most of the buildings were log houses and they were burned down. But he saw how volunteers who had came with them were already moving stuff, cleaning some parts, getting out corpses so they could bury them later. It was important to get the train station to work again so they could get more people come here.
They should be fine. Sure it would take time to build this town again but it was clear that the people of Naava Town would not give up.
Laxus frowned when he lifted few rocks. These were parts of meteors, they looked different to be just normal rocks from walls. He growled letting the rocks fall from his hand. He really hated that Humphrey guy. If only they knew where to find them, he would kick his ass so hard he would shit footprints for a month. No one collared Freed like that without consequences as long as he lived!
It was getting really dark when all of them finally gathered in the middle of the town. They had repaired one of the biggest buildings there so all of them could get inside. They all got rooms and they made beds out of everything they could find.
"So what are we gonna do next?" Bickslow asked, sitting beside a fireplace in a small room where Laxus and Freed would spend their night.
"Tomorrow we will repair the train station", Laxus said. "At least well enough so the train can move. People in this town can start rebuilding and we can go back to Magnolia."
He looked at Freed who was still reading. He had done nothing else but read the whole time after they had stepped inside.
"Hey", Laxus said getting up and walking over to the other man who was sitting by the table.
"Hmm?" Freed murmured not stopping.
"Have you eaten anything yet?"
"Hmm..."
"Guess not", Laxus grunted and he snatched the book away.
"Hey!" Freed yelled and he looked at Laxus annoyed. "I have to finish that book as soon as I can."
"No you don't", Laxus snorted. "We can take this with us to Magnolia."
"I was planning to take it back tomorrow before we leave."
"Why bother? You said no one would notice. Just take it with us and bring it back later."
Freed sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me. It's better if you don't need to hurry. Just go eat something, then we can go to bed. That is an order."
"Fine", Freed said and he stood up. "But only because you know I can't stand against your orders."
"I know", Laxus smirked.
"You big bully", Freed said, but playfully and he stepped in the hallway.
"He gave up quicker than I thought", Bickslow snickered and Laxus put the book down on the table.
"That's because he's planning to keep reading once I've fallen asleep", the blond haired man explained. Then he frowned. "We should definitely go home tomorrow", he muttered.
"Why?" Bickslow asked curiously.
"I don't know. I guess I'm just being paranoid but in here I feel like those enemies of ours might jump out at any second. And I'm nervous that there's only Gramps and Roxanne taking care of Felix. What if they might attack them now?"
"I don't think so, baby", Bickslow said. "They have no reason to do that. True, they could use them to lure us back, but we would just come with the whole guild and they can't win against all of us."
"Yeah, you're right about that. Using Felix and other kids as a bait does not work for them right now. It was different when we were out with a smaller group. Besides, I want to take Freed home before something happens."
"Dude, I get it but you're going too far", the seith mage warned. "You know Freed doesn't like it one bit if you try to patronize him."
"Yes, but I can't help it."
"You're acting weird, you know that?" Bickslow said confused. "You know Freed's strong and he would kick your ass if he heard you now."
"I know", Laxus growled. "And I don't care. It's just... I don't know", he huffed.
"Something's going on, baby", Bickslow said. "Maybe you knocked him up again and that's why you're so overprotective?" he smirked and Laxus laughed.
"Nah, that's not the reason", he assured.
"Guess so. Well, I'm off to bed", Bickslow said getting up and stretching his limps. "Try to cool your head a bit, okay? Just a friendly advice", he cackled and stepped out of the room.
Laxus sat down on the couch and huffed, thinking about it. It must be just because Humphrey had gotten so close to Freed earlier. He just didn't want that to happen again.