The group had reached what appeared to be mainland late last evening and spent the majority of last night in a cave, forcing Charla to relax and rest, before continuing again at first light. Now they were flying up the coast, trying to locate the missing Sky Dragon Slayer somehow.
...
Gajeel hadn't known Wendy for very long in the grand scheme of things, but while everyone in the guild were now, at least somewhat, his friends, she was one of the few that he could really consider himself kinda close to. When he'd first met her he had tried extremely hard to hide his jealousy at the fact that both she and the Salamander had a cat, but she had not been in the least bit intimidated by him. She'd been extremely eager to get to know him, what with him being another Dragon Slayer who's Dragon foster parent had vanished on the same day as her own.
He'd been rather resistant to these attempts to befriend him at first but the kid had a good and honest heart and she was vastly more mature than the Salamander, despite being five years younger than him. She wasn't extremely irritating, like a lot of kids her age were. So he found himself letting her sit nearby and talk to him now and then, particularly after that whole Edolas thing where his respect for her Support Magic had grown phenomenally.
Mirajane had teased him that he was ruining his lone wolf image by taking care of a little lamb like Wendy. He'd threatened to manacle her to the wall and taking her place on the stage next time she was due to sing, like he had before, if she ever said that again. But Mirajane had just smiled and winked at him before going on her way.
On the whole though, Gajeel was still something of an outsider in the guild. He'd won the trust of all its members now, but very few of them actively tried to talk to him on a regular basis. Sometimes one of them would sit across from him, exchange a few words, ask how he was, but it usually didn't take them too long to move on again. Aside from Wendy and Lily, the main one who did was Juvia, whenever she wasn't watching Gray, which was most of the time. But when she wasn't, his fellow former Mage of Phantom Lord was pretty good company.
And while he'd probably throw a punch at most anyone who said to him that he and the Salamander were getting on better, he'd have to admit it was somewhat true. Their previous antagonism had evolved into more of a friendly rivalry. They still insulted and beat the crap out of each other whenever they got the opportunity but that was pretty much the same thing Salamander did with Gray and they were close friends too under the surface.
Was there anyone besides them he was really close to?
Well… there was Levy he supposed.
Gajeel shook his head to derail that thought process before it could go any further. He didn't want to think about Levy right now.
And it was not because he was worried, damn it! He just… had better things to think about right now. Yeah, that was it. He wasn't worried about Levy. No way. Nuh-uh…
Although… he had been her partner for the S-Class exam, and although that had been cancelled, he did feel responsible for her because of it… She'd been right there next to him, holding his hand when Acnologia had fired on them and then…
He shook his head even harder. Gods damn it all, he was not worried about her. He needed to worry about Wendy - the other girl who had been holding his hand right before… or six years before… he'd been separated from everyone.
Focus on Wendy, focus on Wendy, focus on…
He blinked, as a sudden familiar smell began to tickle at the edge of his nostrils. He looked up, wrinkling his nose and narrowing his eyes as he tilted his head from side to side, trying to pick out where the scent was coming from. His eyes locked on the mouth of a wide river that they were approaching now and he pointed towards it. "Head down there," he said.
"Why?" Charla asked sharply. "Do you have something?"
"I might do," Gajeel grinned. "Let's get in closer."
Happy responded hurriedly and whooshed downwards, Charla and Mavis hard behind them as Gajeel's sniffing became practically a continuous noise. The lot of them hovered over the mouth of the river, the three Exceed watching Gajeel's studded nose twitch, before a wide smirk split across his face.
"Got her," he said. "That's Wendy's scent alright. She went up this river."
"Are you sure?" Lily frowned.
"Why would you doubt me?" Gajeel asked. "I know the girl's smell and that's definitely it coming from this river."
"Forgive me, Gajeel but I had always heard that when people were in water, tracking scent was next to impossible," Lily said. And he had good reason to think that. Exceeds had a better sense of smell than a normal human's but it was actually much weaker than that of a normal cat's. As was their eyesight in low light. But of course they could also speak and fly whereas a normal cat could not.
When it came to scent tracking though, Exceeds were really not that great at it.
"Let me guess," Gajeel rolled his eyes. "You've read in fiction books all these scenarios where someone's managed to escape from being scent-tracked by going through a small stream or something. As if suddenly there's no possible way for dogs or whatever to follow them after they do that?"
"Well, yes," Lily nodded. He had done some reading during his downtime in both Extalia and the Royal City of Edolas alike and fiction stories in both often had that exact thing.
"It's bollocks," Gajeel replied, simply. "A stupid thing that authors made up to give the hero the chance to escape from their pursuers. Do you know how scent trails actually work?"
"I have a feeling you're going to tell us," Lily chuckled.
"Scent trails are formed of dead skin cells," Gajeel did indeed tell them. "Every living thing is shedding millions of dead skin cells at all times and those skin cells have the same scent as the person, so they leave a unique trail behind. Going through water doesn't eliminate the smell - the smell lies on top of the water. Sure, running water can take the skin cells and therefore the smell downstream, but it sure as heck doesn't stop you from leaving the trail on the bank when you get out again so unless its a super wide river anything with a nose like mine could pick out where they went without even having to cross."
"Well, I guess you really can learn something new every day," Charla remarked.
"That does make sense," Happy nodded. "That's how Natsu managed to track me and Erza to the Tower of Heaven after we were kidnapped by Erza's old friends. The tower was out on an island in the middle of the ocean and he still knew which way to go."
"Geehee!" Gajeel laughed. "Never underestimate a Dragon Slayers nose."
"So Wendy went up this river for certain," Mavis nodded.
"Definitely. And quite a way up it I'd say. I reckon the smell's over a day old and its been carried downstream over the course of that day."
"Then let's not waste any more time," Charla insisted. "Let's head up the river until we find the point where she got out."
"That's right. We're on the right track," Happy nodded, and the group swooped down low to the water, which ran between two large hills, following its meandering path with tilts of their winks, Charla smiling for the first time in days, before a sudden thought occurred to her and she asked. "Gajeel. Is she okay? Can you tell from the scent?"
"I can't smell her blood, so she's not been harmed enough to make her bleed. And I don't smell death either. Besides, I already told you to stop with your fretting. I said the girl's tough. She's alive. I know it."
Charla felt herself smile again in spite of Gajeel's slight snap at her, and powered her wings to pile on all speed. "We're coming, Wendy. We're on our way."
...
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