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Wheels of Fire	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 22718 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. I make no money, I just do this for my own pleasure.

Chapter List
- 22
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Chapter 23
Edoquakes Again
Natsu found shelter from a windstorm inside the stables attached to the tree-like guild. There were a dozen stalls, but only a few animals, all of them the weird tanchimo creatures that these people used for riding, since magic was gone from Edolas and cars were useless. He pet his alternative-self's tanchimo, a purple beast named Yusō. The animal that looked like something between an emu, a horse, and a rabbit was normally wild, but it settled down around Natsu. He guessed he and Dragion smelled alike. Animals went by smell, and Yusō liked to sniff him. Natsu enjoyed petting the tanchimo, although he refused to ride one.
"He's not transportation, you know."
Natsu jolted. He had not been paying attention to the sound of footsteps, and a stiff breeze that morning blew the smell of the approaching person away, so he was startled to see Edo-Cana walking forward. She wore a prim calico dress, a massive sunbonnet, and she held in her hands a saucer and teacup.
"Or, that's what Natsu Dragion used to say," she went on, stepping delicately around a pile of tanchimo droppings. "At first, Natsu was determined to think of a tanchimo as just another means of transportation. However, as time passed, the creatures no longer fulfilled what Natsu needed. He still felt timid, even while riding. The trouble was, he got too close to them. They became friends. He couldn't feel the freedom of travel when he was merely riding along with a friend. So he kept switching tanchimos, a new one nearly every other month. Yusō here is the tenth one he owned. Actually, all of our current tanchimos were originally Natsu's. He would break in an animal, train it to carry a rider, but then he'd get attached. As soon as he did, it was no longer transportation, and the effect wore off. I wonder if the same would work for you."
"Yeah," Natsu agreed, petting Yusō's neck. "Happy isn't transportation. He can fly me around in any way at all, and I don't ever feel sick."
"You've bonded well with Yusō," Cana said, coming up beside him. "Try riding him. It's obvious that Yusō thinks of you as a friend, so maybe he will work for you. I think you'll find more joy and freedom with a tanchimo. We can go riding into town on a shopping trip. I could use someone to carry back my crates of tea. I go through tea ever so quickly," she lamented, taking a sip from the porcelain cup in her hand.
"Riding, huh?" Natsu asked, looking up at the creature's tiny black eyes, thick eyebrows, and fat cherry-red lips, with long purple ears like a rabbit. He held up a carrot, and Yusō happily devoured it. "I wouldn't mind more freedom."
He was also thinking, if he could learn how to ride, he could escape this dark guild Fairy Tail and ride off to Royal City. Knightwalker did not scare him, and he knew Mystogan, or King Jellal, would do everything possible to help him. The only reason he had not left yet is that Lucy Ashley insisted it would take weeks, and he did not know the land well. With a tanchimo, perhaps that journey would only be days.
Cana set her teacup to the side. "I'll show you how to saddle him up. You'll have to keep him calm, though. Yusō is notoriously wild around anyone but Natsu Dragion."
She got a saddle and showed Natsu how to strap it around the chest and hind of the creature, just above the bunny-like puffball tail. It held still as Natsu carefully climbed up and let his weight sink onto the saddle. Suddenly, Yusō bucked up, and Natsu gulped down vomit.
"Your weight is more than he's used to," Cana realized, trying to hold onto the reins. "He doesn't recognize the weight. Try talking to him."
"Uuuuugh!" Natsu moaned in sickness. "This was a really bad idea."
At the sound of his voice, Yusō looked around and saw the pink-haired man. Immediately, it calmed down.
"There, see!" she said with a pleasant smile. "Yusō knows Dragion by his voice as well as smell. Keep talking."
"This is nothing at all like Happy," Natsu complained, slumping down in the saddle.
"Don't you realize it already? Yusō was never truly broken in. He won't allow a rider onto his back. Only a friend. He sees you as a friend, not as a rider. It's rather rude if you see him as transportation and not as a friend too."
"As … a friend?" Natsu stroked the purple neck, like he had been doing earlier. Yusō made a rumbling purr noise. "Heh! That's cute. Happy purrs when I pet him too." Suddenly, Natsu realized something. "Hey, I don't feel sick anymore."
"Go walk him around the guild building," Cana encouraged. She picked up her saucer and teacup and stepped aside to let him pass.
Natsu held the reins, gave them a small jostle, and the tanchimo moved out of the stables. It was a bumpy ride, but Natsu did not feel sick at all.
"Wow! It's better than Wendy's Troia! Yusō, you're really awesome."
The tanchimo began to prance arrogantly.
Natsu rode around the guild once slowly, getting a feel for the saddle and how to handle the creature. Then he went a second time, listening to Edo-Cana call out the commands to use for steering, stopping, and galloping. He took Yusō into a canter, and the rush of the wind felt good in his pink hair. This was similar to flying with Happy, only bumpier.
"Hey, Cana! I think I got the hang of this. Wanna go riding?"
"You're still a novice, but I can see you're having fun. Let me get a traveling cloak and some money, then you can…"
Cana suddenly gasped, and as Natsu watched, something shot through her chest. Blood burst out over the prim dress. She dropped her teacup, and it shattered against the grass, splashing a pale brown liquid onto her soft shoes. Then slowly, she fell forward, collapsing face-first into the grass.
"Cana!" screamed Natsu. He kicked the sides of the tanchimo and rushed over to her. "Cana! What happened?" He jumped off and slid to her side. Under her, a pool of blood seeped out and oozed between blades of grass. "Oh … oh God. No!" Natsu looked around for enemies. He saw no one, and he smelled nothing with the stiff wind. "Help!" he bellowed. "Cana's been shot."
Macao was the first to run out of the guild building. He saw the woman lying on her face, her dress bloodied, and Natsu kneeling beside her putting pressure on the wound. "Oh God … Wendy! Wendy, get out here with the medical kit. Someone, get a stretcher. Elfman, come here. Help us carry her in. Natsu, what the hell happened?"
"I don't know," he shouted frantically. "She was just suddenly shot. I don't smell anyone. Dammit, she's bleeding bad. Back home, I'd just cauterize this."
"Don't use magic, Natsu," Macao warned. "You know what Wendy said."
Natsu looked down at the shiny crimson slicked over his fingers and the blood still seeping despite the pressure he was placing on the wound. The shot was too low to have hit her heart, but it was still bleeding severely.
Wendy rushed out with Elfman, and Romeo came out with a stretcher under his arms. They carefully rolled Cana over, and she moaned as they slid the cot under her.
"That was … my favorite … teacup," she mumbled as they lifted the cot and hurried her inside.
Lucy Ashley stomped out, a rifle in her hands, and she tossed a pistol to Natsu. "Must be a sniper. Where is he, Natsu?"
"I don't smell anything," he muttered, still staring down at his bloody hands that now held a weapon he truly did not want to use. "They must be really far away."
"Or they're approaching from downwind." She scanned the horizon. The wind whipped her short, blond hair around. "Damn this breeze and the fog! If they know you're with us, it's possible they know you can smell enemies."
"But who in this world knows that about me?"
Lucy's brow furrow. "Yeah, who … oh, those fuckers … Fairy Hunters!" she bellowed back toward the guild.
"Fairy Hunters? You mean that other Erza? Ashley, maybe she can help us."
"How? By shooting more people? I am not putting the lives of the entire guild at risk."
"But … Knightwalker is like Erza Scarlet, right?"
"She opposite to Erza Scarlet, just as you're opposite to Dragion, and I'm opposite to that Heartfilia girl."
"But Ashley…"
"No, Natsu! I won't risk it. Cana was just shot, for fuck's sake! Don't you get it? Knightwalker killed our friends, our master, our family. I'm not about to hand you over to that murderer."
Just then, there was another shot, but Lucy Ashley dropped to the ground just in time to miss getting hit.
"Stop shooting," someone whispered. "You might hit the magic user."
"Lucy!" Natsu screamed.
Still on the ground, she propped up on her elbows, took aim with the rifle, and fired in the direction of the voices. There was a low rock wall, something probably once used by shepherds to keep the flocks in the field. Natsu now saw the two people crouched down wearing royal uniforms. With the gusty wind that day, he could not smell them, but now he heard them.
"Bastards!" he shouted, and he ran toward them in a fury.
One gunman aimed at him, but the other yanked his partner's shoulder, making the shot fly off wild and hit the guild wall instead.
"Idiot, you can't shoot him! Pink hair. It's the magic user."
"I was aiming for his leg. He won't die, but he won't run."
"It's too dangerous."
"No, he's too dangerous. Didn't you listen to Captain Knightwalker's briefing? We are not to engage the magic user. Suppress him by any means necessary."
The gunman took aim again. He was about to shoot when another blast from Lucy's rifle hit his hand and shot the gun right out. The man screamed as a finger was completely blown off from the bullet. The other soldier fired at the blonde, and Natsu heard her shout in pain.
"You bastards! No one hurts Lucy. Fire Dragon's Roar!"
Lucy's eyes went huge. "Natsu, no!"
Flames shot out of his mouth, directed through his hands, and engulfed both men. They shrieked and rolled on the ground until the flames were out. Then they turned and ran as fast as they could.
"Get back here, you … you…" Natsu suddenly collapsed to his knees and blinked out dizziness. "Ooooh … okay, that was a dumb idea."
Lucy held a gash to her arm where the bullet had nicked her. "Natsu! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just … magic … uuugh…" His face went flat against the grass. "Need … magic."
Under him, he felt a tremor in the ground. It was faint at first, but soon it grew stronger with a sound like a wild stampede heading his way. The wind around him began to swirl around, sending Lucy's short hair into a tempest. The fog swirled with the wind, until a twister took form right above Natsu's prone body. Yusō cried out in fear as the wind roared and the ground shook hard. With a deafening rumble, the dirt itself cracked apart, opening into a chasm that tore the stone wall apart, leaving behind a meter-wide gap.
"Edoquake," Lucy shouted, kneeling down as the massive shaking made standing impossible. The crack in the land spread, and a fissure opened just a couple steps away from her. "My God, I've never felt one this bad before. And what the hell is that funnel?" she asked, gazing up at the sky. "We don't get tornadoes in this part of Edolas."
Natsu felt a strange sensation. "It's … me," he realized. "N-no. No, stop it. Stop doing this." Slowly, the shaking ceased as if following his commands.
Lucy Ashley looked back at the guild. "Is everyone okay?"
Wendy ran out, her massive bosom bobbling with each pounding step. "We're fine: broken dishes, a window shattered, a shelf fell and broke a couple tables, but no bad injuries. The worst is Mira. She got cut up when all the alcohol bottles fell off the bar shelves. It's not bad, though. Was that really another edoquake? That was way too strong. Unless … Natsu!" she shouted, and she ran over to him.
"Stay back!" he bellowed, making her stop short. Slowly, he rose to his knees with his head hanging down wearily. "It's … me. I don't know how, but the wind and the land … it's me. It's my body. I could feel it just now. I was trying to reach out for magic particles. There aren't any. There's no Eterano in Edolas anymore. Still, my body is trying to absorb them from the atmosphere and the land." He looked at the huge crack in the ground. "It's … it's tearing the land apart. I don't know how, and I have no clue how to stop it."
Lucy stomped forward. "Stop trying to use your magic, you fucking idiot! That's what happened last time too. Shit, you're gonna kill yourself and us."
Natsu gazed down. His hands were still red with blood, and now they also felt hot from the fire he had produced. Cana was shot because people wanted him. Her favorite cup was shattered, because of him. The guild was damaged, because of him!
"I'm … not safe. Not for any of you. It's just gonna get worse. I can't get the magic back. My body will keep trying, and…"
The ground suddenly began to shake again. The foggy clouds that made this piece of land so safe to hide swirled around again, funneling right above Natsu's body like last time.
"No! Stop it!" he yelled, fearing all this strangeness. Slowly, the strong shaking and weird swirling stopped. "What the hell is going on?" he cried out in terror.
Wendy frowned, hating to see him scared. "Natsu," she whispered.
"Don't come near me," he yelled, and his voice cracked in strain. His hands shook in terror, and his eyes began to tear over. "Just … no one … don't get close to me. I might try to suck magic out of you, and I don't know what will happen if I do that. I … I could … kill someone."
His eyes grew wide in horror. These people had become his friends. He really had come to think of them almost as a family. Now they were all in danger … because of him!
"Oh God," he whispered. "I'm dangerous to you, to the guild, to everyone in this world. I … I don't belong in Edolas. I'm gonna tear the whole planet apart if this keeps up."
Lucy Ashley scoffed, "You're just being melodramatic."
Still, Natsu looked saddened and fearful. "I … need … to leave." He suddenly jumped up and began to run. The two Edolas women chased after him.
"Natsu, stop it!" Wendy cried out.
"Stay away from me! I'm dangerous to you all," he shouted back, racing away.
"There is no way you're more dangerous than I am," Lucy argued, running much faster than Wendy.
Just as she almost caught up with the weakened Natsu, Yusō ran up parallel to the Dragon Slayer. He leaped onto the animal, and Yusō bolted off. In mere seconds, they were a purple and pink dot on the horizon.
"Shit! That idiotic son of a motherfucking whore!" Lucy Ashley screamed. "Dammit, we have to catch him before—"
They heard a beast's cry high above. Both she and Wendy looked up into the sky just as a squadron of Legion swooped down. They saw redheaded Erza Knightwalker in the lead.
"Oh God, not her," Lucy Ashley moaned. She raced back toward the guild building. "Prepare for wormhole leap! Levy, you have half a minute."
She ran inside the building. The place had suffered more damage than Wendy let on. People dabbed bloody cuts. Elfman knelt by Mira's side, holding her as Droy used some medicinal ointment on gashes to the beauty's face. Cana moaned in the infirmary. The others were trying to clean up the mess from the quake in preparation for the guild to move locations once more.
Levy's fingers raced over her console. "Lucy, you're gonna make us materialize right in the middle of a fucking mountain one of these days."
"It'd be home for an old bat like you," she snapped. "How's Cana?"
Macao reported, "It missed her heart, but it hit her lungs. One lung has collapsed. Wendy did what she could to stabilize her, but Cana needs a hospital and a real doctor."
"Then pray we land somewhere close to a town. Levy, how much…"
Just then, they heard the whinny of a tanchimo. Lucy raced out just in time to see Wendy's purple hair fly by.
"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled. "We're about to jump."
"If we do, we'll lose Natsu for good," the woman shouted back.
"We'll find him again. Follow the epicenter of any edoquakes in the region. Shouldn't be that hard."
"Then that's where you'll find me."
"Wendy, get your spidery ass back here!"
Wendy looked back around with a sad smile. "You have a duty, Lucy. Master charged you with taking care of the guild. Get them to safety; I'll get Natsu."
"You idiot! How will you find us?"
Levy ran out the door. "Wendy, catch!" She threw a metal device. "It's the personal transporter I was working on. If you're lucky, it'll bring you to wherever the guild ends up. If Salamander is lucky, it'll take you to Earthland instead."
"And if we're both unlucky?" the busty woman asked, handling the invention warily.
"You'll end up somewhere under the ocean, or in the middle of Knightwalker's torture chambers, or maybe another dimension altogether. Wish for luck." Then she hurried back inside. "Prepare for a wormhole leap!"
"Wendy!" Lucy Ashley yelled. "Don't let them take you prisoner."
She gave a confident wink. "I'm the Sky Maiden. I'll fly out of here before they can catch me."
"And don't do anything to Natsu."
A smirk rose on the young woman's face. "I'll only do as much as you've done."
"You cunt!" Edo-Lucy sneered, but just then Jet and Droy yanked her inside, and the whole guild vanished.
Edo-Wendy stared at the vacant spot and gave a deep sigh. It was common knowledge amongst the guild that if they leaped while a guild member was away, that person was pretty much on their own. It could take months to find the guild again, following rumors while hiding one's own identity. Many times, a person left behind had little other choice but to settle down somewhere and make the best of the rest of their life, and they were never seen in the guild again. It was said that most were captured by Fairy Hunters in under six months.
Voluntarily staying behind was suicidal. However, Edo-Wendy knew she could not abandon Natsu.
"Damn that hothead! Why'd I have to fall for someone like him?" She looked at the incoming squadron. "I might as well leave them a Sky Maiden welcoming."
She pulled on her gloves, unraveled some of her thin spider thread, and nimbly strung it between areas, low enough to catch the enemy. Then above, and around, weaving a complicated web of nearly invisible lines. In just a minute, she had set her field.
"A work of art! Now to escape."
She climbed onto the tanchimo and rode in the same direction Natsu had gone. Behind her, she heard shouts and screams as the invaders flew right into her web, getting lacerated on the razor-sharp strands. Her eyes narrowed with determination as she galloped off after the man she had fallen for.
Erza Knightwalker leaped off her Legion and looked at her men nursing injuries. The guild was gone, a flattened place in the grass showing where they had been for the past week. As she carefully stepped forward, she saw invisible lines dripping with the blood of her troops. Suddenly, she felt a sting to her face and froze instantly. Careful, she pulled back. She saw a droplet of her blood drip down one of the spider threads. Her gauntlet reached up, swiped her cheek, and she saw the blood that dripped from a thin laceration.
"That damn Sky Maiden," Knightwalker muttered. "We flew all this way for nothing." She stomped back to her Legion. "Pull back carefully. Watch for lines. We're heading back to Royal City."
"Already, Captain?" a weary soldier moaned. "But we just got here. We've been flying all week."
"Tch! Fine, you can stop at the nearest garrison, but I'm flying back to see what the king wants to do next." She took to the air and glared at the horizon as she flew away. "When I find that Sky Maiden, I'm going to cut her. Slowly."
End of Chapter 23
A/N: I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month starting in November. I wanted to get one more chapter in before the madness hits. If you are also doing NaNoWriMo, please feel free to be my writing buddy.
http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/rhov
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Wheels of Fire