Fairy Tales

[Gildarts]

Spiraling darkness. Her stomach lurched, then felt as though it were speeding in her stomach at two-hundred miles an hour. Her hands reached out instinctively, as though to grab walls, or grapple upon any ledge the darkness might let her, but to her streamlining fears, there was nothing to hold her.

I’m going to die.

She thought to herself, and then his face flashed into her mind. It was painful, to have to look at his face in the darkness. She herself could never find the words to tell him. Now she would never have the chance to say it. Tenrou Island was her opportunity to make him proud. She would’ve become an S-class wizard, as he once was. Someone worthy of noticing. Cana, never felt as though she was. Yet, Lucy had helped Cana, given her the confidence and courage she needed, but then the other guild had interfered in the contest, and Cana couldn’t remember anything more. Had the dragon killed them?

Had she died without a father?

The encompassing world around her was still black. But this time, she drank in a taste of burning, acrid, smoke which filled her nostrils, scratchily passed down her throat, and sunk smolderingly in her lungs. The girl coughed as she wiggled her fingers, which met with a texture that resembled sharp rock, it was warm, as though heated from below. Cana’s entire body was laying on this jagged surface, and she dug in her palms and drove her torso upright.

Bright amber eyes followed the corners of the room, or rather, cave. It was dark, and the air was so dry, she thought that her lips were already chapped, though she had been in the room for what she could tell as but a few minutes. Her eyelashes cleared away the clumps of black ash that cluttered the corners of her eyes. Her lungs, still wracked with a wreathing struggle for breath that caused her to arduously cough more, until she was driven to rip a shred off of her already revealing shirt and use it to cover her nose and mouth.

The cloth sifted the air around her of ash, and helped her to breathe, however, it did nothing for the hot tears rolling from her stinging eyes. The white cloth was tainted black by the sooty smoke, and she resembled a ninja now, while her rich, brown eyes were framed with darkness. Finally, she dizzily stood, and leaned against  “What the... Where am I?”

Last she remembered, she was on Tenrou Island, battling the other guild, and then... When Cana tried to remember, she got woozy, and fell into the wall, her head, inches from a sharp spear of rock. When the girl collected herself, she looked down, maybe her attire would help her confirm, and possible wounds on her skin.

Her eyes looked down to see her clothes, now dusted with ashy soot. Over her shoulders and sleeving her arms was a white cardigan without a cape or buttons down the front. Popping outward, was her large bust, covered by a bando-bra shaped navy-blue, almost black brazier, with a white stripe to tie in her jacket. Past that, her smooth stomach was free of fabric, and off to the left side, her Fairytale tattoo was showing boldly in a patch of skin that had yet to be smeared by dirt. On her legs, a pair of very tight black pants and a cute belt wrapped loosely around her waist.

Through her headache, Cana, a woman in her mid to late twenties, remembered her choice of clothes and thought they matched her style, which was in fact, distinctly sexy.

 Over her shoulder, she had a small satchel, and though she didn’t know it, it was much like her fathers, but a little more fashionable than his ruddy looking sack. Cana fished her hand around in her purse and quickly caught all of the strands of her hair, gathered them together in her fist, and wrapped the bunch of hair in a messy bun. Her neck, which was now sweating, was free of the tickle of her long, curled, brown hair, and she sighed a wheezy breath of relief.

Her eyelashes batted against the dry air some more, her comfort was not long lasting, for the room’s temperature was ever-rising. The haze of Cana’s head hadn’t cleared, much like the densely accumulating smoke of the room, but it was soon made clear to her by the spouts of lava coming from the ground around her, and rolling in streams right past her feet, that Cana was in danger.

Brown eyes looked around again, darting, and hoping to cut through the smoke of the room, but from where she was, it surrounded her. A frown weighed on her lips, and the woman wondered whether it would be safer to make her way up, where the source of the lava was surely coming from, or down, where it all would surely go. She bit her lip from under the shred of fabric, and felt it bleed. “Tch... Gildarts, where are you when I need you?”

Story of my life.

It was by a stroke of very bad luck she had not found the very Prime she mentioned by name. She had decided to go up, to ascend the mountain though her intuition nagged her, her gut and heart told her Gildarts was up there. Yet, after a few steps into the submerging black clouds, Cana’s foot almost stepped directly in the flaming heat of lava, and the fear bristled in her from head to toe. That was too close, She told herself, and while she was deciding whether or not to take an extra step upward, fueled by the yearning in her heart, just to be sure, the fortune-telling mage was struck by horror as she heard the roar of a dragon, louder than any thunder she had ever heard in the sky.

It was, unmistakably, a dragon. The thrilling sense of fear burst in her accelerated heart, and stirred in her melting shoes. She let out a startled yelp, it was a cute scream on the woman’s lips, though there was nothing attractive about a dragon that may well threaten her life. The woman almost shouted for help, but she wanted to save her energy, though had she, she knew no one would hear her up in the desolate place where she was, and that her hoarse voice would not carry but a few feet. A few feet, would have been all that it would have taken to find Gildarts’ ears, for he was battling a dragon by the name of Volvalgia with a group of other Primes, just beyond her eyesight.

The tears of fear cleared streams on her pale skin and left stains of white on her black-chalked face. “Damn,” she felt so helpless. There was nearly nothing she could do, and though she could consult her cards, she did not feel like she had the magic to summon the future’s truth- nor, did she have the time.

Pools of lava now drew largely around her feet, and she was trapped in an encompassing circle, forced to choose, right or left. Toward the dragon, toward the source of the lava, toward the danger or away from it all, away from, even, the sure sense she had in her stomach that Gildarts was there. The girl blinked, and chose “up” but when she started to take a step, a huge boulder came out of no-where, shot through the smoke, and collided with her stomach, where Cana was sent rolling backward, down the hill of the mountain.

It was a miracle she survived. Blood poured from several wounds, but they were only, at most, an inch from the surface. Still, the pain hurt, and the scalding sensation mixed with that of the unbearable heat. The disoriented girl looked around, and found that she had conked her head pretty damned hard on a conveniently sturdy black rock. Cana was seeing doubles, but at least she was seeing.

The world, no longer black, but now resembled glowing embers, with a hue of bright orange staining the clouds in the sky. Her blood leaked to the ground, and started to sizzle upon the obsidian quartz. Around her, a volcanic world she had never before laid her eyes on. It was almost magical in the way the landscape fell, but on the other hand, lava had started to trickle too close from her, she could now see that it came from a spout in the mountain, rather than the volcano erupting. It was one hell of a climate. The woman squinted through strands of her hair, but really, she could only see the glow of the magma clearly. The rest blurred together with a vague uncertainly of shape, directly affected by the throbbing that her head battled with.

Instinctively, Cana felt her hand go to the spot on the back of her head that hurt the most. Immediately, she felt her palm splash with a warm gush of blood. Fear turned her body rigid, and sent he stomach upside down. But that was not the only thing, it was almost uncanny, but Cana could feel that something in her body was different, something about the mechanics of it, something about its balance of magic. Still, a wound like this, on her head, in this climate, in an unknown place where she had little memory of arriving there.

A pout bridged on her lips, and Cana thought her chances of survival were dismal at best. I can’t even see straight. Oh yeah, and there’s a dragon due north of here. Just. My. Luck. A little magic would get her out of this in a synch, but could she even use it in her state? Cana tried, through the dizziness flooding her thoughts, and through the pain stabbing into her mind, to focus on her cards. She supposed it was because Gildarts was her father, but magic had always come easily to her.

A flash of light, and Cana felt a great sense of hot power guide her fingers to one of the cards. Quickly and desperately the woman grabbed it, and launched it into the air. Soon following it, a great force of energy filled her legs, and with a gust of wind, Cana was sent away from the looming shadow of the disastrous mountain, and taken far, far away.

[Gildarts]

When her feet finally met the ground, the Secondary had arrived in a small town, and while it was still a rocky, ashy, and less than satisfactory climate for inhabitants, Cana felt grateful to have arrived somewhere relatively safe.

“Oh thank goodness...” her legs gave out just as she had reached the door to a small looking storefront, but when she was carried inside, she saw that it was actually a musty pub with a few people in it. They had cleared a table for her and set her on top. Eyes crawled on her skin, some lecherously, others, compassionately. Cana fell in and out of consciousness now, and her eyes blinked in a spinning room.

“She needs a doc’er.” muttered a man with a clean voice.

“Lot o’ blood, wha’ you think happened?” another asked.

“O’ course it’s gotta have somethin’ tae do with the dragon...” an onlooker suggested as he drew his ale glass up to his lips. There was too much fear that came with the name, that the man could not bring himself to speak it.

“She’s no prime. That’s a big group of ‘em up there though, maybe the lass tagged along?”

“It doesn’t matter her story, just treat her,” a strong woman’s voice broke easily through the crowd of alcohol smelling men.

“Come on, bring ‘er here, bring ‘er here,” an old man beckoned Cana as her eyes rolled around in her skull. The man had brought a little kit of supplies, and treated her wounds as best he could, first they felt like fire, then, the white bandages stained with crimson as they were cleanly wrapped. Finally he concluded, “She’s lost a lot of blood, that head wound is serious.”

“So what do you think doctor, will she make it?” the same female spoke, while pressing her wrist to Cana’s forehead.

The old man took a step away from his patient and gazed at the room, Cana, and then to the woman, who had taken such an interest in her, a grin crept on his wrinkled lips as he delivered the good news.

“Without a doubt.”


...

It was an hour or two when Cana Alberona finally plunged into the light once more. When she came to, her stomach felt sick, as though it had just been aboard a boat on a rocking sea. Her head buzzed with a numb pain, while her arms and legs stung with dull awareness, stiff with the memory of injury. She found herself looking up at a wooden ceiling, perhaps the only one in the whole entire town, for most of the houses were made out of the resources of the land. The pub however, at least the interior, was made to look like home.

Big, blue eyes of the old man, who held a stethoscope in his hands, looked down at the girl. He seemed to be mouthing something to her, words she could only distantly hear.

“Oh she’s coming to, here’s some water for you, can you understand me alrigh’? Yeh gave us quite a scare there. My name is Sy, I also have some medical training, it is a good thing yeh made it here in time, your wounds were quite serious, but we were able to patch yeh up.” the old man offered her a kind, bright smile, that reminded her of home more than any set of walls could. She immediately embraced the man with a hug, for without him, she wouldn’t be alive, and without him, she wouldn’t have the chance to see her dream through. Gildarts’ silhouette leaving town once more flashed below her eyelids, and she could’ve teared there, had her body the energy to do so.

“Wow, well, than’ ye’ miss. Now then, doctor to patient, how’d yeh end up here anyway? What were you doing out in the Steppes, I don’t need tae be the one to tell yeh that it’s real dangerous out there...” he began, his eyes wavered with a very human concern.

“I... Don’t know,” Cana admitted out loud, “I just woke up there, in a cave, I think, there was a lot of smoke. Tell me, how far am I from Magnolia?”

“Magnolia... What’s that?” the old man paused to fret for the girl’s sanity. This was the Omniverse, anything was possible, however, there was the fact that he’d never heard of such a place, and he said it.

“You’ve, never heard of it? Sure, sure you have! If not, then how about Earthland?” Cana found herself growing frantic, shaking with the nervous realization that something had happened, she’d been transported to this place, wherever it was, but she was not, ultimately, dead.

“My dear, I don’ know what you mean by Earthland, but you’re in the Omniverse now.”

“The... What?” It sounded made up. In fact, it HAD to be. This was ridiculous, it couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be real, this place, it had to be dream, just a... she shuddered as she remembered the sound of the dragon’s roar. It was the most “real” thing she had ever heard in her entire life. She had felt “real” fear in the moment after it’s eruption. And “real” joy when the doctor had treated her like an old friend.

Cana could feel the burning sensation of tears well up in her eyes, but she would not let them roll down her cheeks. Not when she had things to do, the girl sat up from her makeshift bed, and threw the thin sheet off of her. “How did I get here?”

“That’s the question I was asking you, miss,” a wry smile broke on his lips now.

It was a stalemate, and Cana realized that answers would not be found in this pub. “Alright then. At least tell me, what is this place?”

“You’re in the Ashen Steppes, a uh, world within the Omniverse. There are verses, yeh see, they’re all linked by the Nexus, and portals bridge us to the worlds. The other worlds are a bit more hospitable to new secondaries who arrive here, but oh yes! Secondaries,” he said, with his voice suddenly getting very shaky, “Are not the same as Primes, who were summoned here by Omni himself, Omni, is rumored to the be deity who created this world.”

“Do you mean, he’s God? Can we... Can he send me home? You see, the last thing I remember doctor, is getting separated....” Cana looked down and gasped. Fairy Law was bestowed on her arm in a patterned print. “NO WAY.”

“What, what? Are yeh alright miss?” the doctor looked around, through his spectacles, as though he were trying to see if he had missed something when examining and treating her wounds.

“No, oh, I’m okay, I just... This... I didn’t...” she was speechless for a good five minutes. Brown eyes, distant and batting away the confusion her muddled memories brought her. Finally, she stood. In her eyes, a ferocious determination that resembled only one man in existence. Her father. Cana voiced her intentions aloud, and decided that even her pain could wait. Her body staggered before finding its balance, and the doctor outstretched a hand.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” his voice now sounded as old as she realized he looked, the kindness was still there, held in his eyes like a piece of his smile, however, she realized as she got a better look at him, that he really had some years over her. He could’ve been older than Master, had master been here, but Sy was certainly taller at least compared to Master’s usual form.

Finally, Cana stated this clearly, and for the first time in a long time, she felt as though she couldn’t go wrong.

“I need to find someone.”

[Gildarts]

It was a strange next couple of minutes. There was a woman, who seemed to want to know more about Cana, though she would not say why, but the woman proved helpful, for she was a good artist, and helped to draw a sketch of Gildarts from Cana’s description. They handed it around the bar, but no one had seen him.

“Is he a prime, or a secondary?” a gruff voice asked.

Cana had no idea, “I don’t even know if he’s here, in this... Omniverse place, but I have a strong feeling, that if I was transported here, he was too.” Cana never doubted her feeling, because it was never wrong. Magic included.

“You’re wasting your time, girl. No one’s seen ‘im. And even if they had, they’d think you were out for his bounty-” the man blinked, suddenly ashamed, in spite of himself.

“Bounty? YOU LIAR!” Anger rippled throughout the room, whilst Cana in one swift movement, scooped the man from his barstool, winced as she aggravated and re-opened a wound, and held the man pinned to the wall, with a single card’s edge held to his throat. The words came slithering through her teeth and in the room, a tremendous sense of power could be felt from the mysterious girl without a name, “Tell me, what do you know?”

The man who had been sipping his ale suddenly shit his pants. His pokerface that had concealed his knowledge when he had seen Gildarts’ rough sketch had gone out the window. This girl was no secondary, she had to be a prime. Her powers were mysterious, enchanted, and there was definitely a reason for him to be quivering with fear against the wall. The mage’s eyes were set ablaze, and the man thought it, given his position, in his best interest to come clean.

“I-I’m sorry, l-listen I don’t want any trouble, h-here’s where I recognize him from.” The man gestured to the pocket of his jacket, which happened to contain a wrinkly old scroll, “I’m not a bounty hunter, I swear, but I deal in information, and there have been some clients-” Cana was not an aggressive, nor violent person, but she had heard enough.

She released the man and was confident enough that he would not pull a weapon on her, that she in fact dangerously, turned her back on the shaking man and began to unfold the lines of paper. Her hands held the corners of the paper and she could not keep them from crumpling the paper with shock, as she read the following, written plainly in large text:

PRIME WANTED - GILDARTS

DEAD OR CAPTURED

REWARD 700 OM, 950 OM BANISHED

Wanted for the murder of nearly 50 civilians by explosion.

Cana couldn’t help but thinking -Yep that’s him alright. But she could not believe her own eyes, so she allowed them to read on.

A large muscular man with sleeked back chestnut hair and unshaved stubble. His torso is covered in bandages, while his arm and leg of the left side of his body have been replaced with metallic prosthetic limbs. He is responsible for a magically induce explosion that killed an estimated 35-50 innocent civilians. He was last seen heading towards the Nexus gate. Approach with extreme caution, as he has been stated to wield a very dangerous magic.

Cana felt her feet wobble, and luckily the woman had caught her with a chair, for Cana would have fallen to the ground out of shock. Her voice, now fragile, echoed, “No... It can’t be.” as she read the entire poster again and again, seeking something... Anything that would prove that what it said was a lie.

On the ground, Cana had realized that other posters had now fallen, each with a bounty generally lower than Gildarts. He was fetching a large price. “He... He... I can’t believe it.”

My father. A murderer.

“Well,” a voice assured, “At least, since he’s a prime, ye’ know he’s not dead.” A reassuringly pleasant thought, but true, all in all.

It wasn’t intentional, of this, Cana was sure. Gildarts wielded crash magic, which was known to be volatile at times. She was sure, with all her heart, that this had been a mistake. But Cana had to admit, this looked rather bad. The entire bar was looking at her -leave it to a bar for her to find just the information she needed- and her reaction, from hot to so watery and cold, had made her appear vulnerable and weak to these strangers.

“Uh, I’m okay everyone, I’m just so shocked to see this.” She couldn’t explain in more detail, but she could feel of all the eyes on her, the woman without a name, was probing her with the utmost interest.

“Lots o’ primes get bounties, it’s in the business. Heck, the empire gives ‘em away for free. What’s he in for?” Another seemed gleeful that Cana had found who she was looking for, “At least you know he’s here in the Omniverse, right? And hey, yer intuition ain’t half bad, ever thought of fortune telling?”

Cana felt her tarot cards in the bag over her shoulder and felt a piece of her smile, “That’s my profession, actually,” she grinned and ordered a keg of ale.

“A whole keg?”

“Ah, actually, better not, force of habit, but I think I’ll have to leave town soon.”

“Your wounds haven’t healed yet, you shouldn’t travel like that.” The mysterious woman protested.

“I can and I will. Now, can anyone tell me where the Nexus is? And actually...” Cana read the fine print of the poster, “This... Camelot?”

“You’ll never find him.” Someone dared to state, firmly.

“Har har,” another agreed.

“Even if you do, what’s to stop him from attacking you, too?” someone voiced, seemingly concerned, while others murmured their worries and fears, but the woman stayed silent.

“He knows my face.” Was the only explanation Cana could bear to offer, and it was one that silenced the whole room

“You still don’t know the way.” the doctor offered, though in a sympathetic but doubtful tone.

“I’ll find a way. Fortune-teller, remember? I’m sure I can get my magic to-”

Cana was interrupted, but by the doctor, “Not to dishearten you, lass, but I think you’ll quickly find, that when you get summoned here, your abilities have a way of changing. Sometimes for the better, most of the time, for the worse.”

“Nonsense, I feel better than ever, thanks to your help, doctor.” Cana offered a beaming smile that he couldn’t deny.

“Still, take this map, and take note, this is not the world you know...” the old man warned as he handed her the parchment. Cana couldn’t help but to look at the thing cross-eyed. It just didn’t make sense. This wasn’t home, no matter how many maps she had. There were little portals, she could see that much, but the worlds were foreign and Cana just couldn’t wrap her head around it.

“I think I’ll be better off using my magic... But I like to use my tarot cards over a map, so I’m sure this will help, thank you.” Cana looked at the map earnestly, but seemed still, very confused.

“You’ll never make it. Even if you can navigate the map, you won’t find him.” The woman finally spoke, her truth, crashing down on Cana like an cold, ruthless avalanche.

Cana’s jaw hung open, and doubt crept in, but she stood firm, her voice, determined with an unknown strength. That of, perhaps, family, though fueled by an unspoken truth of her own. “If it takes me a hundred years, I guarantee I will.”

The woman’s liquid red smile emboldened a hundred times so, she completed her sentence, this time, triumphantly, “Without me.”

...


The pair set out, with much thanks from Cana to the doctor, who had also provided the two with enough food to start out their mission and sustain them for some time, “I will not forget the kindness you have done me.”

The two women walked in silence, along a sketchy looking path through the mountainous steppes. For a good long while, neither said anything. Cana was still recovering from her severe concussion, dealing with the swaying nausea flourishing in her stomach, and finding the willpower within herself to push past the pitiless pain that threatened to weigh her down. Not much thought fell on the stranger to her right, but she did wonder if she could trust the woman, with, what could mean her life. For now, Cana simply accepted the silence, and the woman, without much plea against her company, it would be a worse journey, in an unknown land such as this, alone.

The woman to her right stood tall, just shy of how tall Gildarts was, and just taller than Cana. The stranger had bold red lips, and long, black hair down to her waist. She wore an outfit with the stark and powerful theme of black and red, Cana couldn’t help but to feel as though accompanied with the woman’s pale skin, that she was some sort of vampire, after all, the way she had looked at Cana when her attire had been soiled with blood was almost inhuman.

It was dangerous, Cana was a traveler, however, while she was protected by a pub full of people, now on the road, she had only one set of eyes, her own, and she had not recovered to full strength yet. It made her nervous, but Fairy Law was somehow on her arm, and this gave her a strange sense of unreal power, something that was somehow untapped within her. It would give her the means to fight an enemy off if it meant her life, unless, however, Cana was poisoned or tricked... Hopefully, as a soothsayer, she would ‘see’ it coming.

It was not Cana however, who broke the soon-to-be uneasy silence, but the stranger, who spoke in low, alto tones, but with a sophisticated demeanor about her. “So, I never caught your name at the bar, and I don’t believe I mentioned mine, I’m Cassandra. It is a true pleasure to meet you, even under these most... Unnatural circumstances.”

“I’m Cana,” the mage didn’t hesitate, “I appreciate you volunteering to come with me, but I have to ask... Why? What’s in it for you to help me find Gildarts? Unless... You want his bounty...”

Cassandra blinked, perplexed, “Is that not why you are hunting him? Well, even so, I do not care.” So quickly, Cana’s desires were dismissed, and surpassed by the woman’s own, “No, I joined you, for more than one reason. You see, when you came in, I feared the worst. I thought you were dead, perhaps, with a bit more relevance, I thought you were my sister. You see, my sister looks almost exactly like you, your features... Remarkably similar. You could be, twins, if it was not for the mark on your stomach, and your eyes, which I’d say, are a minute shade darker than hers. It was when I heard you were looking for someone, that I felt my hopes confirmed, I thought perhaps... You can help me.

“Then, when I saw you wield tarots, and practice the art, I was sure of it, sure as you were, of the man you were searching for, and the fact that he is here in this world. I seek your help, for I know my sister is here, but we were separated in the land that rolls with tide, and I haven’t seen her since. I’ve searched... So far, I’ve consulted those mages of Dalaran, and have been offered no conclusive results. And I fear, since my last prophecy, that my time is running out, for... They told me, that time is running out.” Cassandra concluded.

“Mages of Dalaran? Who are they? And running out for you, or for her?” Cana found herself asking.

There was a wry smile in response to the latter question, which the vampire chose not to answer, “Worry not, Cana I think, we may end up stopping at Dalaran on our search, for you see, Dalaran is a town in Camelot, and Camelot, is our first stop.”

“Well...” Cana paused, and stopped in her tracks as she walked on the hot earth below her feet, “Now, I’m worried about your sister too, but Gildarts, I think they’re hunting him as we speak, I feel our interests conflict, you’ll take me to Camelot and then...”

“I think you’re mistaken, Miss Cana, in seeing that our missions are different, but of the same nature. You see, I too must visit Camelot, and we are both searching for missing people. I will go with you, as far as I can, and am able, for I believe, since you have arrived and look and act so much like my sister, that our fates are entwined. I do not think there will be a sacrifice of time, but something of a chance, that meeting you will deliver me to her.” Cassandra was so sure.

“I see... But still, if we happen to get sidetracked... your safety, and your sister’s are at risk.” Cana was concerned for the woman now, and wanted to put her own search for Gildarts on hold, even though, she knew he could be killed at any moment.

“We will retrace the trail Gildarts has left for now, but I will admit, Cana, that I don’t think Gildarts is in Camelot any longer, since his bounty would have been claimed by the Kingdom, or perhaps he would have been captured by a stray hunter, had he stayed. No, I’d say he’s on the move, but, don’t get me wrong, I think his presence in Camelot may have left clues, we could find someone who knows him a bit better there, or who knows where he may be going.” Cassandra surmised, and finally concluded with a very viable option.

“I... Understand,” Cana said finally, “But what about... Your sister? Is she not in danger?”

Cassandra spun around, meeting Cana’s eyes to the core of her soul, “You tell me.”

It was not said with any fragment of attitude, but instead, a request of Cana’s abilities, perhaps even, a test.

“I...” Cana looked at Cassandra and shuffled her deck, before pulling out the card that felt right. She held up the tarot to find a grim answer to the question. Cana gulped and replaced the card in the deck before moving her head in a curt nod. The mage could not find it within herself to speak, and Cassandra narrowed her eyes.

“You see?” Cassandra voiced, “Now I know what the card said, but if you want, you can speak what you think will help.”

“To do that, I’ll need to do a full reading... Not here, I need to recover my magic to get an accurate reading, plus, I’ll need a table.” Cana winked, and the girls both laughed, the hilarity of their situation finally setting in, they needed to get a move on, but there was something so funny about its inconvenience. They continued down the road laughing, with hope in their eyes that they each be delivered to a more fortunate future, by one another.

[Gildarts]

Their feet carried them far along the craggy obsidian rocks, meanwhile, Cassandra explained some of the Omniverse’s physics, as well as told her a little more about the current verse they were traveling through, the Ashen Steppes. A dry sweaty dew accumulated on the vampire’s pasty skin, as the woman donned in black explained they were traveling away from Death Mountain.

“And there are Primes there, battling a dragon, right now?” Cana asked out loud, pondering if Gildarts was there.

“Yes, a group of them,” Cassandra confirmed, and as though reading the Cana’s mind, continued, “But, you were up there, and you would have seen them, plus, it’s dangerous to be searching up there all alone, and lastly... We asked everyone at the pub if they had seen Gildarts, and no one had, almost all the Primes meeting to battle the beast passed through town. Cana, there’s also the fact that many of the people who go up to battle the dragon will not make it, in which case, they’ll actually be resummoned at the Nexus, like I said earlier, or maybe it was Sy, Primes are immortal. And they just so happen to like to test their luck once and a while. Unfortunately for us Secondaries, we aren’t so lucky, and have to go through this life the hard way.”

Cassandra batted her eye in a wink and carried on. Cana was left pondering this, Gildarts, her father, was supposedly immortal. Damn, life was moving so fast. Cana felt her mind reeling with thought and hardly noticed the many people streaming in and going toward the town they just left. Cana asked the vampire, “Hey, where d’you think they’re headed?”

“Oh, them?” Cassandra cocked a coy, luscious crimson smile, “The majority of them are merchants, stragglers, and traveling hunters. They heard about the battle, and I think that they’ll try to ask the Primes for the skin of the immortal dragon, Volvagia, that is, if they are victorious. Now, we’re nearing the end of the path the miners usually use, so we’ll have to be extra careful-”

Immediately a burst of fire spouted into the sky, inches from Cana’s nose. “Eeep!” the woman shrieked and jumped back, but the pain of the fire had caused her nose to redden and singe slightly. “Ouch,” Cana muttered, batting her now tearing eyes as she looked down at the hidden minefield below her feet.

“Hmm. Perhaps it’s best if I lead. I’ve noticed, on my travel at least to the base of Death Mountain, that if you look closely at the contusions in the rock, the parts that are a slanted inward, are usually more condensed and sturdy rock, in which case, it’s a stable stepping stone to the next patch of declivity.” Cassandra informed Cana, then extended her long leg outward, into a lunge which carried the woman to the next patch of lowered stone, like she said. It didn’t explode, so Cana thought that that was at least a good sign.

Cassandra seemed well cultured, and educated, as well as very... adaptable. Cana appreciated the woman’s help, even if Cassandra had not confessed that she was a vampire outright. Perhaps it was rude for Cana to have assumed that fact, based on the less than obvious traits the woman had displayed. It could have been a matter of circumstances, even if Cana’s gut told her the opposite. Cana decided she’d ask the woman later, and focused on hopping from step to step, and hoping to the great laws of magic that she’d make it out of this volcanic place in one piece.

[Gildarts]

Cassandra and crew sauntered onward, occasionally stopping because she needed to “sit down” or have Cana eat some food. “Did you want some?” the Fairytail wizard asked, blinking as she held out an apple.

Cassandra looked at the piece of fruit, as though it were a rock in Cana’s hand before speaking, “I’m quite alright, I can’t eat food that is directly summoned, that is to say, a prime has a special power that us secondaries do not and cannot apply, since we’re directly made from it. Anyway, summoned food disagrees with me,” Cassandra told the lie with a convincing expression, though behind the mask of her pale, beautiful face, the brunette held a smirk, “But I think the taste of ‘grown’ food, though the trees were once summoned as well, is much more appealing.” The thorough explanation told Cana that her generosity was not meant to snub her offer, but simply that there was a reason for the rejection of it.

Cana, after looking hard at the apple she had already eaten shrugged her shoulders and bit into it, “You don’t think I’ll get a reaction, do you?”

Cassandra’s smile broadened, finding this most amusing, since her lie was so believable, Cana was concerned for your own health now, “No no, I’m sure you’ll be quite alright.”

“What makes you so sure?” Cana said, meaning no accusation, despite her curiosity.

“I just, don’t get the feeling that you’ll have an issue? My world was very... Particular about where it derived its food source, I believe it had a strain of food that was far different than that of many who inhabit here, it makes finding food that agrees with me, and is safe for my body to have without a reaction, a bit difficult, in this verse particularly, though the Frozen Fields and the Endless Dunes, I assume would have the same effect, as they are Vast in size.”

Cassandra’s explanation was very thought out, and Cana had no reason to doubt it, so she simply blinked and continued crunching, picking apart the taste with her tongue, and comparing it to the fruit of home. On her last gulp, Cana swallowed the food and heard a very strange squirting noise gargling coming from the cavity nearby.

“Shoot.” Cassandra growled, and suddenly her entire body moved into a defensive form, which by example, urged Cana to do the same. “Sorry we couldn’t make it through here easily, but we’re about to have some company, let’s just hope there’s only one of them and no more.”

The elusive woman suddenly unsheathed a long katana that she had somehow been disguising as a part of her attire, when it was pulled out however, the seams in the fabric woven in to accommodate the case became apparent. The woman had several attributes of stealth, and now that Cana reflected on this, she had not been able to hear the sound of her feet falling on the ground, despite this kind of rock, which made almost anything that caused friction or force against it to create noise. The wizard too, brought out her cards and readied them, though, she wasn’t sure how much damage she would be able to do, considering the strange laws of the Omniverse, and how they noticeably had effected her own strength.

The blue cards glowed familiarly in the wizard’s hands, and Cana, though her arms had been covered by the jacket, couldn’t help but to feel a tided of curiosity spark as she caught a glimpse of the tattoo of “fairy glitter” just underneath the cuff of her wrist. Whatever had happened, that mark was there, and she recognized it, and the magic that seemed to be bestowed with it. Then, there was also the fact that Cana had a newly tapped confidence in her, one that might be just as lethal when applied to battle, her eyes narrowed and she waited for the cards to be dealt.

A single claw came out of the obsidian ground, it had talons on each finger, as long as

The creature surfaced, one hand at a time, as though he were cracking through the shell of his own egg. Gushing molten lava rolled out like a seeping goo, faster than it could congeal against the cold stone ground. Bright orange filled the injured cavity of earth and a thick skinned beast could be seen crawling and heaving his way onto the surface. It was covered in magma, but slowly this molten mush dribbled off of his skin, revealing, at first patches of ornate brown scales.

[Gildarts]

The creature’s visible patches of scaly flesh seemed to immediately steam away the heat, the rest, oozed with the magma that looked like molten gold before each bombarding the ground in hissing plop! sounds that followed their respectively rolling cascades.

Cana stood there in horror as the beast, which was so inhuman and monstrous, she could not help but to compare it to a beast, a monster, and a dragon, yet, no singular assigned word other than, perhaps “demon.” Evil spewed forth from every ounce of its skin, contaminated by the fresh gust of heat in the air from the creature’s unexpected arrival from hell. A creature like that, while it was not entirely unimaginable where Cana came from, had to be incredibly powerful with magic in order to survive in that climate. It had come from within the magma. Based on the stoney composition of it’s scales, it probably even lived there. Cana felt a taste of fear chill her neck, however, for her, where there was fear, there would always be fire.

The katana wielded by her ally was moved into one poised and ready to joust. Following Cassandra’s initiative, the deck of tarots hovered naturally in the air in front of her, levitating with a small note of pulsating force, its source, being Cana herself. A deep growling came from the devil, which finally had dropped the entirety of its magma cloak, and now stood tall, on two very dense and sinewy legs. The creature was a human-shaped monster, with rough brown scales for skin, and spikes protruding all the way up its back, arching upwards in little hook-shaped spikes. Cana’s jaw dropped as the creature’s head was the last thing to turn.

It resembled a dragon’s. But they’d been extinct, at least, in her home world. Now, the female got to gaze at true evil, for every hair on her body was bristling, her stomach was sickened, and the expression, so blood-thirsty and monstrous, was pouring into her. His eyes were glowing a deep red-tinged orange, and had no pupils. Around the glowing slits, a thick layer of skin had formed, it was shaded darker than the rest, and appeared like a too-thick black eyeliner, and coated thickly around the hollows of the creature’s reptilian skin.

Its movements were very starchy, as though its flesh resembled or had absorbed the same heat as from whence it came, and had begun to cool into a more sturdy rock. The scales began harden all over, even around its joints, crimping its mobility, which would make it harder for Cassandra’s katana to plunge into its flesh. She knew this, and seemed to strike almost immediately. It was interesting she waited until after her first blow had landed to tell Cana, “Quick, now, before it’s scales harden!”

It seemed Cassandra had encountered these creatures before, but the adaptability of the dense creature seemed to be going faster than either of them expected. On the second plunge of her sword into the foe’s flesh, it scraped and sparked on impact, as though its skin were more like steel than living tissue. “Tch.” she spat through her teeth with disgust, “Damn.”

It had been too late. The exterior skin of the beast was now stronger than the obsidian it had been forged, and now, the predator of the land was staring at them, as though they were its next treat.

A sharp grin protruded from the beast’s spiked mouth. And this menacing glance was one that hung on his face, for the stone of his scales caused his expression to freeze in place, with the fire behind his eyes, the demon of the volcano continued to emit spirals of hatred, destruction, and the assurance of their death.

Immediately, the lips of the creature gingerly parted and roared with life, a cackle that echoed throughout the inferno around them. The lava seemed to be enlivened the the pyro’s roar, and spouts of it gushed upward in a geyser like fashion.

Cana’s face hardened, how were they supposed to get out of this one? Her eyes followed the surroundings, and though the wizard wasn’t one to run from a fight, the creature had brought, comparatively, a BFG into a fist fight. The result was obvious. And Cana was looking for a place to turn, “There’s no way out!” she heard her own lips report to Cassandra, who this time, had narrowed her eyes at the beast, and when Cana looked closer, the vampire’s pupils had narrowed into toothpick sized slits.

Lava spurted everywhere, splashing in subsiding tides around first Cassandra’s feet -who was closer- and then Cana’s own soupy shoes. Cana breathed heavy, the air was dense with ash and liquid heat, she gulped but the air went down dry, and her lungs felt scalded by the fire she had inhaled. The creature slowly lurked toward them. With every step, its joints grew hot yellow beneath his coal skin, and it seemed to take a good amount of effort for it to make any movement.

Instead of attempting to take the two girls on in close combat, which while the girls would have been at a disadvantage in strength, they had it in speed and could have been able to escape from at least its grasp, had the beast extended its hands, formed in fists, high in the sky and slowly began on their decent downwards.

Upon their crash, the skin of the knuckles glowed bright orange with effort, as the power-filled arms propelled through the air, and slammed into the dense obsidian ground with momentous strength. Then came the ripple of cracking surface rock, the golden glimmer of a plasma fire blow the ripped edges of the many contorted rocks’ surfaces. Cana couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and if she couldn’t believe it, she could feel it on her skin. The heat was sweltering, she felt as though she were going to black out then and there. It was suffocating, blistering, and sweating did nothing to cool her skin. Strands of perspiration rolled down from her neck and poured into the ground. She sighed, heaving in a breathe with laborious effort. Meanwhile Cassandra seemed less than phazed about the heat, and more worried about the extra light that had been added from below. Cana however, could not tell the latter, and assumed it was just another symptom of their near-heat stroke conditions.

Cassandra grimaced and looked over at Cana, who was squirming after being set ablaze by the air above the lava, and was struggling deeply to function through a haze of blurred thoughts and movements. “Tch. Cana, get out of here, he’s going to corner us in, look! The pathway is already falling in!”

If they thought they had been trapped before, now, it seemed as though there would be no escape. As far as the eye could see, the ground they were standing on became but mere islands, cast adrift by the mighty waves of lava crashing against the mounds of obsidian that had managed to keep itself above the rift of scourging lava. It was an ocean of the molten magma, and Cana was just counting her thanks that she had been lucky enough not to be completely submerged in it.

[Gildarts]

On her tiptoes, the Fairytail wizard stood on her own little pillar of rock, that was about four feet across on each side. The vampire nearby was struggling to hang on, while the pools of lava filled the land around their feet. Each, were in mortal terror. While the monster of their nightmares walked through the lava as though it were water, splashing up molten specs as the dragon-like devil stalked forward.

The light from below glistened on his brown-scaled skin and the rage filling his fiery eyes tore beams into the air. Growling silently, the beast neared. Cana, however, prepared her deck of cards, which fluttered in the air around her and glowed with white. Deep within her, she felt determined of only one thing. She would win. Her life and future depended on it. So did Cassandra’s.

Power flashed in the air around them, and glowed and grew with life. Cana, a powerful mage with Gildarts’ blood, flowing through her veins, as well as the mysterious tattoo on her arm, delved into her magic and willed herself to fight with everything she had.

It continued forward, meanwhile, Cana released her cards. Most had magical properties, while the girl sent them forward at the beast, aimed at the joints, which were continuously re-tearing the skin, leaving the hardening and softening-vulnerable and prone to damage.

The beast neared Cassandra, about a few yards away, Cassandra screamed for her life, and wielded the broken sword in her hands, ready to give it one last hoorah. The cards sent by Cana flashed before them, and sliced into the creature’s arm and leg. It was off-balance, having lost an entire leg, severed at the knee -resembling Gildarts, ironically enough- and the dense creature had no sense nor ability to stumble or balance, and delved immediately into the lava in which it walked, causing a splash to splatter near Cassandra, but it was much better than being caught in the creature’s grasp.

“JUMP ON IT’S BACK!” Cana instructed the vampire while their predator was down.

Cassandra, on her own little island, did exactly as Cana said, fearing not, that the creature would submerge completely into the lava which would cause her immediate demise. Luck was on Cassandra’s side, as she used the devil as a stepping stone, and tapped it with her toes. It made a perfect bridge, and Cassandra was safely on the other side, while the island she once stood became submerged completely. She breathed a sigh of relief and knelt to catch her breath, which had caught in her throat with fear.

Narrowly, she had avoided death. Her eyes flickered to Cana’s figure, which stood tall, on the opposite side of the lake of lava. Meanwhile, the figure rose again, slowly, as it had lost an arm and a leg. Anger with such vehemence Cassandra had never before seen, surged in Cana’s eyes as she looked at the monster with an expression of its fateful and inevitable destruction.

“I will end you.” Cana said solemnly, and the wizard launched a final card, straight into the creature’s chest. The blue card, with a frame of white, drove into the creature’s obsidian skin, as though it was a nail, hammering into a wall. Suddenly, it was completely within he lava beast’s molten chest, and at that, Cana’s eyes narrowed slightly, and the card was triggered to explode. With an immense BANG! followed by a WHOOSH as it erupted like a grenade.

Specks of lava went everywhere, while its rocky skin clattered into broken bits.

[Gildarts]

Cassandra exclaimed with a leap of excitement, “Wow!” Meanwhile Cana fell to one knee, fatigued at the magic it had taken to destroy the beast. Waves of lava began to lap at the soles of her shoes, Cana’s vampire friend warned her, “Watch out!”

Cana knew she would soon be drowned by the magma, her legs propelled her upward in a final launched jump, while the island, seconds later, was engulfed in lava. Cana landed, barely, teetering on the edge of the bank of obsidian rock, her heel swayed on the last bit of uneven rock, while a hand came from no-where and gripped Cana’s flailing arms, while she had attempted to catch herself from falling downward into the goo.

Cana was pulled forward, into her vampire friend, and the wizard exclaimed, “Whew!” while Cassandra simply grinned.

“We made it.”

“Barely.” Cana said, with a glance back at the lava pool where the last remains of their magma beast lay at rest. “What even WAS that?” Cana said, after they’d put some distance between them.

Cassandra closed her eyes as she walked, “Even I cannot name all of the monsters within this universe. That, however, was not the kind of creature you see every day.”

Cana nodded. “I’ll be glad to get out of this place, I don’t find I like it much.”

“That makes two of us,” she smirked, “Fire is very destructive, and the magma nearly had us both there.”