Along Came a Gildarts - Ambrosia Awaits

[Gildarts]

“That was a cold adventure...” Gildarts didn’t look behind him as he shuddered from the memory and his warmed joints grew glad. His time in the Frozen Fields had turned his lips purple and now the blood began to draw back to the surface of his skin, reminding his muscles of the circulation his body demanded. With every warm step, some part of his iced-over body began to melt. After a while, the last thing to dry was his black cape, that flapped in the light breeze with his every step.

It seemed as though he had wandered into what appeared to be a forest-type setting and glanced around. This wasn’t the Nexus. Hm, maybe he had passed it. As his experience grew and his journey continued, he thought he had known a little more about which direction he had chosen to take. Apparently not.

Acorn shells crunched under his toes as he stomped heavily into the ground, tired from his tedious adventures. He heard an explosion in the distance, one that shook the very roots of the trees that surrounded him. The hair on his neck bristled as he heard a plummeting high-pitched whistle. Something descended from above, the wizard immediately crouched into a braced position. His hand held high in the air, and he saw only an acorn slowly making its way toward the ground. For a second, the Prime seemed perplexed, he had sensed danger and felt his thawing brow furrow and watched as he expected the acorn to lightly drift to the ground. Suddenly, an explosion! It didn’t take long for him to realize the acorns were imploding like grenades and as one hit the ground, it only shook more of them free.

Bombs of fire chased him from the area as he dodged the many trees that curved along the path. There was seemingly no escape, but his pace slowed as he inhaled the fragrant scent of pine. With great triumph, he held his chin high and the ease of the challenge he had overcome surrounded his shoulders. It was too bad there was no one else around to see how he had skillfully evaded the attack from above, especially when he didn’t even have to battle in opposition. His boasting grin grew as he wandered forward and through the forest that seemed to only grow thicker. There were no trails in sight, nor could he pinpoint the exact direction he was going in. Gildarts, the mighty mage of Fairy Tail, was lost.

He looked around for the spot he had taken the wrong turn at, but he realized he may have even chosen the wrong verse. Darn that Nexus, everything looked the same. I may have even taken the wrong gate. Oh well, I think I’ll ask this local... His thoughts trailed as he approached someone picking a spiked fruit from a tall tree. They were standing on a ladder but the forest dweller was quite evidently nimble. The woman around twenty-five wore clothes of cobalt and her head turned to see the mysterious man approaching.

“Excuse me, uh..” he pondered for a moment as he thought he saw the back of someone’s head, “Could you offer me some directions?”

The middle aged woman smiled, it wasn’t often she saw outsiders this close to town, “Sure where are you going?”

“I’m trying to get to the Black Gate.” Gildarts said as the taboo topic impressed a weight upon the woman’s face and warped a distorted expression as the Prime received a nasty retort. His ears rang as he heard the shrill woman’s yell and he rubbed the side of his head to bring the life back to them.

“Huh? What do you mean its not a real place? I’m trying to go there!” Gildarts didn’t want to hear no for an answer.

“That topic is taboo here!” the scowling female cast a look over her shoulder as though the trees were whispering with the rattles of wind, “The thing you wish to see doesn’t exist. Unless you really wanna see it that bad? I’ll show you with this banishment circle! Prepare to meet Diablo!”

The fiery secondary woman held up her self defense, a black orb of spiraling death. Where she was from, the orb was better than any pistol or pepper spray. “Stay away Prime! Or else!”

“Huh? I’m not gonna attack you,” his voice rumbled in tones of nonchalance, but this only peaked the woman’s interest. She raised her arm as though her fingers were itching to banish the evils of man.

“Oh no...” Gildarts muttered to himself as he scratched his itching nose. The woman seemed to smirk with satisfaction as she got the man to admit defeat.

“I thought so.” she said with a smile and placed the un-deployed black hole back in her pocket.

“I’m gonna sneeze, you may want to stand back.” Gildarts plugged his nose and warned the woman, whose quizzical look was enough to state her curiosity. What a strange man

“Ahhh- Ahhhh...” The tremors in his nose seemed to fade and after he was sure he had evaded the sneeze, suddenly the tickling sensation rose in his nose once more.

“AHHHHHHCHOOOOOOO!”

The Prime released a loud sneeze and sent a burst of air in the direction he had came from, suddenly the earth beneath their feet was uprooted and the smell of fresh soil mixed with the air.

A huge chunk of the forrest’s trees seemed suddenly shaken or overturned. Fruit that she had spent days trying to pick and loosen from the stems suddenly fell to the ground in enormous piles at the base of the trees. Despite his clumsiness, he caught the woman who swayed on the shuffling latter until she safely landed in his arms. Her cheeks were painted rouge as she quickly leapt from the powerful Prime’s clutches and the horrified secondary ran from his sight with her expression morphed into one as though she were about to scream.

“Jeez,” the oblivious Gildarts rubbed his nose, “That was bad timing. And I didn’t even get the directions...” Instead he followed the woman to where she was running, maybe she fled into a town that would have a map or potentially someone with more helpful insight.

He dared to look over his shoulder to gaze amidst the destruction he had wrought and saw only piles of prickled pomaceous fruit. Gildarts plucked one from the pile and bit into it, only to taste a sharp sweetness that caused him to gag and recoil with a crinkled nose.

The Prime followed in the tracks of the secondary into town, as she alerted the her sister of her experience by shouting about a mad Prime that will bring destruction to them all.


“TRISHA. You said the same thing happened last week, get oover it.” Her sister groaned as Trisha cried-wolf once again.

“No but it REALLY happened this time! You have to believe me Nama.” The oldest pleaded with her gasping breath.

“No Prime is going to destroy us, or don’t you think our leader is good on her word?” Nama, a woman of about twenty, rolled her eyes at her panting sister distastefully.

Gildarts approached on a path into town carrying a heavy basket, it was full of the prickled fruit and was piled high over his head.

“Whose that?” Nama’s eyebrow rose.

“Thats... HIM!” Trisha shrieked with terror and was frozen with fear as Gildarts drew closer and set down the heavy mound of fruit. Without knowing it, he had saved Trisha a month’s worth of work.

“There.” Gildarts said with a content breath as he relieved the weight from his joints.

“You dope! This was the only GOOD part of the forest after the blight! Can’t believe you ruined it.” Trisha sent an angry punch into where his arm would be below his shoulder and her knuckles met only metal. CLANK! The impact of her strength caused her whole body to become rigid as the frenzy zap jolted from her head to her toes and caused her hair to burst on end, much resembling an animated lion.

“Hah, I don’t know,” Nama smirked as she grabbed an fruit from the batch and took a crisp bite. She spoke with a mouthful, “I like him, I think he suits you.”

Trisha sneered to her sister and the man had already walked off in search of someone to give him directions. Gildarts had unknowingly entered the town of Ambrosia.


...

Fiore? Gildarts looked around and the scent of crisp leaves blew with the wind. Gildarts shook his head and the thought of home dissipated as the stone cold reality resembled brick houses and pebbly streets. Can’t let it get to me... This is just like all those times before, nothing’s changed, and yet... Gildarts reminded himself and let the nostalgia that had he felt rise in him pass as soon as it had made itself known.

The outsider walked through the town of unusually young people, who all turned their heads to see whether the intrusion was one of a threat. He was met with a bit of ridicule, considering their last scare and the things that may follow with his arrival. Ideas swarmed in their minds, some very optimistic as they hoped to gain some warriors to defend the town. Some negative, such as inviting adults to the town would only assure betrayal, as their parents had all ditched down for Camelot. Still, some found a balanced ground on the mystique that swept with the breeze that followed him. Was he a harbinger of death? One person in town rose above the others and noticed the distinguished man passing in the streets as well as the citizen’s reaction to him.

Suspicion rose within her, the man had a cape and didn’t look very friendly. The Prime was not very well received by the youth inhabitants yet it was not because of his age or stature. Something trailed in his footsteps, perhaps an omen? Something ominous fluttered with his cape that couldn’t be shaken by the breeze. Just who was he? And why was he here? Sylvia would find out as Gildarts found himself being approached by the tattooed woman.

His eyes sized her up in a polite sense, but he could never be too careful considering his current predicament. The Omniverse was full of people who could desire to hunt and kill him; Gildarts would have to rely on something much more than a glance at his could-be enemies if he wanted to survive. Women were more ruthless adversaries than any man had proven against him. Not to mention things were not always as they appeared and he wasn’t willing to take a guess at a confrontational woman’s opposition for she could hold a hidden amount of tremendous power. So, he watched her tattoos, not very much like the one on his chest as he tried to figure out what guild she was in, but to no avail.

“Hello, not to seem rude or anything, but what business do you have here in Ambrosia?” Sylvia had guessed the worse and would leave nothing to chance -for it could mean life or death to her citizens- and she stood before the mighty Gildarts with no fear. Sylvia was driven by a strong emotion and loyalty to protect those she had grown to care for.

Gildarts admitted to himself that she was impressive, but she bore no mark of a guild and had to wonder if she mentioned it, “Ambrosia, is that what you call your guild? Oh, sorry, I’m Gildarts.” He flashed a half-way smile that showed only how many long and weary hours it had taken him to get here.

“Guild? Ambrosia is this town! Or don’t you know where you’re walking?” Sylvia said with some gusto.

“Oh, uh. That’d actually be the problem,” the simplicity in his manner seemed to settle the woman’s ease, if not just by a hair. “I’d like to speak with your town leader if I could, it’s a matter of urgency. I hope they are an experienced secondary, or a Prime, as I’m told that my questions can’t be answered by someone who hasn’t been here at least for a few years.”

“Humph.” It didn’t seem like this big and intimidating Prime was anything more than an oaf, but Sylvia had to know if the guy was serious and tested his resolve, “What gives you the right to come strolling into town and requesting an audience with her, she has other things to do than deal with someone who has a few questions.”

Her challenge seemed to go over his thick and oblivious head, either because he seemingly didn’t register it as pertaining directly to him or other things were on his mind, “Oh, and sorry about your uh... Orchard. Can’t exactly help it when I sneeze.” He hoped he hadn’t caught a cold from that deserted wasteland and pushing himself too much, his injuries however, had seemed to rewoven into his sleek skin rather nicely.

“WHAT?! What happened to the trees?!” Sylvia’s shouts could be heard echoing down the corridor and bricks reflected them right into Nama’s ears.

“Sounds like your friend there has met Sylvia.” Nama spoke to Trisha who ran up behind him to hopefully explain for him, because the stranger really seemed to suck at doing it himself.

Gildarts wasn’t sure how many days he had endured without sleep, man it had been a while, but he couldn’t find it within himself to sleep for recreation. Sleep, however conventional, took time he didn’t have and he had overcome many sleepless nights on his missions where only evil crept in the darkness, and a break couldn’t be caught. No, not here. He wasn’t on his last leg yet... But he was pretty close to it. There were no signs of fatigue other than the seemingly corrosive strength in his muscles. As far as Sylvia or Trisha could tell. the Prime was in the best shape of his life.

Sylvia caught sight of her and warned, “Trisha! Stand back, I think this guy is here to attack our-”

“No, I met him earlier, he would have attacked on first sight had he wanted anything near destruction for this town. He’s not one of the people coming to attack us.” Trisha spoke sincerely and Sylvia weighed the expression on her friend’s face. The woman’s eyes then cast back to the Prime, who hadn’t heard a word of it, but she couldn’t possibly know that based on the determined look he maintained on his weathered face.

“What happened to the trees?” Sylvia asked the intruder, her patience wearing thin. She was intent on catching a threat before it became a problem, unfortunately, that threat was Gildarts who snapped back into their conversation.

“Oh, I accidentally bumped into a few, lots of those fruits fell, but they aren’t my type. Tasted funny. Too ripe or something...” Gildarts remembered the taste on his tongue. Never in his travels had a fruit resembled that.

Trisha interrupted him, “He actually saved me some trouble of picking them all myself. I think this Prime is new to the Omniverse and would be worth taking to see the Princess-”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Sylvia was still determined on hazing him, how else could she tell guu’d from evil? “Oh great, a new one on our hands? It’s the inexperienced that are the worst. And lemme guess, he wants to be briefed? You’re immortal, get over it. As for the fruit, I’m not sure I buy into what you are covering up but I think I’ll look into it later. Also, Prime, those fruit are poisonous if not eaten when their skin turns purple. You probably ate a green one.”

“Poisonous!” Gildarts spit out any remaining film on his tongue. Good thing I didn’t swallow.

“Yeah, fortunately for us, we know the secrets of this land and it actually works as a bit of a defense tactic. Fields of false gold for intruders and the like but who would suspect it would be camouflage? Nature works in mysterious ways, after all. We just play them to our advantage. Lucky for you you aren’t dead right now. So then, I have another question. Who are you and what do you want to see our leader for?”

The Fairy Tail wizard was still wiping off the taste from his tongue as he was beckoned to reality, it seemed Trisha had come from no where again and this time had been on his side. Maybe punching him in the armless armor had an effect? Or maybe she just wanted to see him locked up. Sylvia’s demanding question rumbled in his ears as he saw it. She fought for the safety of the town with careful caution she squandered from within; for there sake, she was even daring to be on the front lines against a powerful mage like himself. He responded to her with only four little words, “You guys have spirit.”

“Wha... What?” Sylvia said, “What kind of...” Gildarts seemed now, to be smiling more than he could. His eyes kindled with inspiration and he knew why he was reminded of Fiore when he stepped into town.

...

Somehow he had managed, with charm or just with a stubborn grace, to persuade them. He now found himself near the great mansion’s doorway. It was huge, center of town, and surely its capital building.

Sylvia still screened him, fearing he was sent by the mighty Gilgamesh (as their names were acutely similar) and wouldn’t let him immediately see her. Sylvia found Guu and had left Gildarts a way aways with Trisha. Hope that girl doesn’t do anything she’ll be sorry for. It didn’t occur to Sylvia that her thoughts were on protecting the town, they just were instinctive. When Sylvia had left them, they seemed to be in a thick conversation about some sort of dragon, but who could care about one of those... Unless Gildarts was part of the team that had slain Rathalos. So many unanswered questions, they could hopefully be answered with Guu’s judgement.

With a knock on the door or the equivalent, Sylvia approached Guu with a perplexed emotion that didn’t fit her normally soothed face. It wasn’t discomfort or anger, but it was unease and urgent that were distinct in the rushed tones of her voice, “Guu, there’s someone that would like to meet with you.”
...

Gildarts remained where he was, thick in conversation with Trisha; they spoke about adventures and stories and all sorts of things. “So Ambrosia isn’t the name of a guild?”

“No of course not... What’s a guild?” Trisha was swooning but because of his fatigue, Gildarts didn’t seem to notice this, only her laughing smile prompted him with another story, each crazier than the last. “Wait, so you’ve done worse than take out a fruit orchard with just one of your sneezes? And here I am thinking you it was an accident!” Trisha’s smile carried him through the moment.

Eventually Sylvia emerged and beckoned the two to follow. They had been waiting a while and no doubt Sylvia had briefed Guu on all she knew. Trisha waved Gildarts off with happy tears still forming in her eyes as he departed from her to approached Ambrosia’s busy leader.

[Guu]

Continued from "City of Ambrosia"

Deep within the bowels of the mansion, Guu stood in the middle of a green screen room, blankly eyeing a part of the wall that didn’t seem to hold any significance whatsoever. The ever red headed, ever nerdy Dan the Cameraman kept peering from behind his camera, looking increasingly agitated. Finally, he shot up and gave her the most menacing of looks.

“Goddamnit!” He roared, but he quickly corrected himself. “I mean, excuse me your highness. I believe I asked you to do some poses, not stand there as you always do.”

“I’m sorry.” She responded. “But the wall holds precedence.”

“How are we supposed to sell t-shirts with you just standing there?” He yelled, his face growing increasingly red.

“Advertising!” She said sarcastically, wiggling her arms in the air.

She froze when she heard the snap of the camera. She recoiled in horror. Dan cackled evilly as the special effects crew made fairly cheap lightning effects on the fly behind him.

“Mwahahaha, I got one!” He said jovially. “Nineteen more to go!”

But Guu had already gone back to looking intently at that spot on the wall. Dan sighed heavily. As he got back behind the camera and waited.


Minutes went by but she refused to budge. Slowly, Dan’s twisted further into one of despair and disgust. The special effects crew have long given up and buried their noses into their dataverse devices. Eventually, he shot up to look her directly once again, his hands clasped together in a pleading gesture.

“Please milady Guu, I beg of you.” He said, his voice sounding weak and broken. “Please work with me! I don’t know how much more of this I could take!”

She veeredd up in what vaguely looked like sympathy. In a sign of mocking obedience, she lay stomach down on the ground, her body contorted in ways that stuck her butt in the air and gave the camera a sultry look while leaning on one elbow.

“Hello, boys.” She said, her voice deep and voluptuous.

Dan is both blushing and furious at the sight of a flirtatious ten-year-old.

“WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?” He yelled, so loud that evens the special effects crew looked up from their screens.

It was at this point Sylvia poked her head from behind the room’s only door.

“Guu, there’s someone that would like to meet with you.” She said, more uneasy than usual. Guu turned to look at her.

“Ah. Of course Sylvia, I’m on my way.” She said plainly as she moved towards the exit.

“No she is not! I’m refuse to let her leave until we-” He began before he got cut off by Guu’s fist in his face, knocking him immediately unconscious. Sylvia could only slap a palm against her face, as the spectacle she just had witnessed only justified her fears. ‘Please don’t start anything...’ she wished to herself.


Gently, she pulled her aside.

“So yeah, we have a visitor. Some old guy.”

“What’s his name?” Guu asked.

“He says his name is Gildarts. He just wants to ask a few questions. I don’t know why he needs you specifically for that, but it was you he asked for. Not sure how trustworthy he is, but Trisha seems to vouch for him”

“I’ll be the judge of that I guess.” She responded incredibly nonchalantly. “Anything else I should know?”

“Apparently, he knocked all the fruit in the north field with a single sneeze.”

Guu had a moment to think about this. ‘He sounded like someone with at least some level of power. If he was here to cause trouble for the general populace, he would have already done so. It would be unusual for an assassin on her head to walk up and introduce himself... then again, that’s unconventional enough to work at least once. Either this guy is very creative when it comes to assassination plots or a complete idiot.’ She nodded to Sylvia.

“Okay, take me to him.”


Gildarts towered over the 3-foot Guu. She was kind of expected a reaction to her height, and was kind of surprised and disappointed to be greeted with a respectful bow instead of a shocked reaction. She sighed heavily at the missed opportunity and decided to get straight to the point.

“So what did you want to ask?” She said with a mild hint of annoyance.

“I’m looking for the Black Gate.” He asked sternly.

“Never heard of it.”

There was a long pause between the two.

“Oh...” He said rather blankly. “I best be on my way then.”

“You sure it exists in the Omniverse?” Guu said, stopping him as he’s about to turn around.

“Pardon?”

“Well, this is a completely different universe from wherever you came from. If it’s something you were looking for in your own world, then this ‘Black Gate’ probably doesn’t exist here.”

He had to take a moment to think. Before he could respond with anything, she stepped in.

“Don’t feel too bad. I’ve seen people fight over crap because they thought the rules of their universe functions the same here. So looking for a place that doesn’t exist here... well... that is kind of sad still. Eh.” She said, all exposition-y and bored. Suddenly, she grabs Gil by the wrist. “Tell you what. Let’s both get a drink. It’s been a long day.”

He tugs him along towards the mansion’s bar.


The two drink non-alcoholic cranberry juice as Guu yaks on about everything that’s happened that day while Gil listens as intently as he can.

“...then a girl drove a moped through my window. Had to make sure she was properly punished for it, that took hours. Then I had another photoshoot to do.” She growled, then downing a shot of cranberry juice. She accidentally sent it to the wrong stomach and got it all over her favorite dress, but she was numb to it by now.

“Guild leader is a tough job.” He sigh calmly.

“I know right?” She said with a grunt. Hoping to get her mind off of it, she repositioned herself and turned her attention to him. “I’m curious, why were you not surprised by my size?”

“You remind me a lot of my old master. He as around your height.”

“Hmmm... I see.” She figured it must have been normal for his universe. Not much would outright shock her at this point.

“So what’s with this guild? Why are there so many young people here?”

“Oh. You haven’t heard? It was all over the dataverse a while back. Let me explain.”


Guu summarized the history of Ambrosia; about the attack of Gilgamesh and how the adults all left out of fear and how the teens couldn’t leave because they’d already adapted to this new way of life.

“Yeah, they have tenacity, but they won’t last the month the way things are. Even I can’t do everything for them.”

There was silence between the two as a pokute poured more cranberry juice into their cups. After a bit of deliberation, Gildarts spoke up.

“I’d like to join Ambrosia.” He said intently.

Guu looked up, somewhat aghast, before turning back to look into her drink.

“Yeah, kind of expected as much.” She responded. “Sure, you can join. You don’t seem like an assassin.”

He had a laugh at this comment. However, his attention was diverted as she hopped off your bar stool.

“You can take one of the empty houses as one of your own.” She stated as she makes her way for the door. “Take your time figuring out what you’d like to do for the to-”

“I want a mission.”

She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. She was going to point out how they just started out and don’t really have missions to go on just yet. However, she had a thought.

She remembered something she read on the internet a while back. Something she kept to herself because she didn’t want to make a scene, but it boiled her up a little inside. She realized this dolt may come in use to riding it from her life, but she wasn’t sure if he could be trusted with it. ‘What if he’s no discreet enough?’ She thought. ‘Can I trust him?’
She scanned him once again.
‘What choice do I have? Not like I have too many people I could feel comfortable to send on this one.’

“Follow me.” She said, beckoning him with a fingerless arm.


She lead him to one of the rooms and shut the door behind her as soon as they were both in. When he was distracted by the unusual wall art, she pulled out her Dataverse Device and started pulling out information. The printer in the room whirs into life, attracting Gil’s attention as it vomits out paper after paper. She signaled him over to look at her.

“We have a problem here in the Tangled.” She began, thinking carefully on her words. “There’s people here... Shapeshifters they... um... they imitate...”

Guu, in an odd sign of emotion is red scarlet.

“They take the forms of other people and they they... do sex stuff with other people and they film it... They even take the form of children and stuff. They even took the form of me, so yeah... because of that they’re kind of a threat to the younger people of my guild... yeah...”

She heads of the printer and yanks it out. She hands it to Gil. It’s a very vague and kind of empty map of the Tangled, but the image magically moves like something out of Harry Potter. Gil is displayed in the direct center with his pixelated mug and the destination is marked with a big red “x.”

“Yeah... just go there.” She said, shuffling her feet, face still red. She suddenly jolted as she remembered something. “One condition of the mission, and this is very important. You must be discreet. Ambrosia can’t be pinned on this, we’ll be faced with endless trouble. Other than that, I don’t care how you do it, just shut them down. Do that and Ambrosia will be protected from their harm... and you’ll have my gratitude.”

To be continued in "City of Ambrosia"

[Gildarts]

“Say no more.” Gildarts spoke calmly and his resolve hardened into his stoney chiseled features. The expression on his face spoke of only success, even as he would challenge the dangers that aroused from this threat. “I’ll protect your honor and save your pride. From what you’ve mentioned it sounds like they’ve made victims out of some very good people.” Who would be next? Trisha? Martha? Billy? No one is safe when there are villains around who don’t care how they violate people and could steal people’s faces. These people... In such a heinous way, how could their morality even allow them to target a mere child? Sure, Guu had immediately earned his respect and responded well to his straightforward approach, but that didn’t mean she was anything more than a kid. How dare whoever these people were, attack children and involve them in something so... Adult.

The Prime took his last sips of cranberry juice, complements of Guu and glanced at the map, navigation was never really his strong suit but he would manage. It couldn’t be that hard, this was a forest but it was plain as the red “X” on the map that he now looked at. It sounds like they have a lot riding on this, the whole town is at stake. It didn’t occur to him to be suspicious of whatever it was that made him seem so trustworthy to the town leader after just having met, and assigned to such an explicit mission, but maybe he had gained a few things in his age like wisdom and virtue. Or perhaps she didn’t have any other suitors who were equipped enough to deal with the possibly detrimental ramifications that would ensue with failure.

Then, there was this other issue, Guu had brought up he was no longer in his home realm and he had opted for nostalgia as he joined her faction that reminded him too much of Fairy Tail. Gildarts was ready to join this new guild, yet bore the tattooed mark of Fairy Tail on his chest. Granted, his navy ink was covered by a few strips of bandages, yet the outline was still visible through the parting of his cloak. His memories of them would never die, even if the fate of his friends was lost. The wizard turned his head to the girl, whose face had become the same color of his cranberry-red beverage, “Say, Guu, when you said that nothing of our home world is here, if that’s true, then do you think we can still carry the names of those who we left behind, as though they were here with us?” Gildarts knew the answer -his answer- and it seemed he was testing his leader on a few levels.

Guu looked as though she were a young girl, but she was ironically the same height as the Old Man who could change his shape into a giant. The last Gildarts had seen of ol’ Makarov, he had transformed for the sake of the the guild and took Acnologia on head on. Acnologia... Dragon of Death. Guu had some big shoes to fill, but in Gildarts eyes, she already had. He had more than enough respect for someone who was willing to protect those weaker than her and ask for nothing in return.

Gildarts suddenly stood, as though mentally, he had already received an answer to his previously asked question. He adjusted his joints and stretched accordingly before smiling to his new leader, and while she was nothing like the people he had left behind, she was the kind of honorable person he looked forward to getting to know. “Alright then, I best be off.” Gildarts grinned, “Keep em’ safe while I’m gone.”

And with that, he was off in a flash.