"You'd be surprised," Lisanna stated. "Just give me a second." She turned back to the Jarvey and said, "You'd have our immense gratitude if you could just show us the way to this other sphere thing. Please. It would mean so much to us."
...
The Jarvey and Lisanna both stared one another in the eye for several moments before the Jarvey said, "Well, you're nice, I guess. I'll take you to the Sphere, even if the Gaylord and the Squealer over there have to come too. This way…" he shot off into the undergrowth suddenly, before popping his head back up out of a bush several metres away. "Come on, come on."
Lisanna winked at both Gray and Juvia, who stared in undisguised amazement for a moment before the three of them followed on, the Jarvey disappearing and then reappearing further away whenever they got close and yelling at them to hurry up, still throwing the occasional insult in whenever he could.
"How did you do that?" Gray asked with a whisper. "Almost all those names that guy keeps calling us can be applied to him. I didn't think he'd every help us in a million years."
"Well," Lisanna rubbed the back of her head slightly. "It's not entirely his doing. I may have… spurred him on a bit with my Take Over. I'm not controlling him per se but… I'm giving him a bit of a nudge to helping us."
"Of course, Lisanna-san uses Animal Soul Take Over magic," Juvia nodded in understanding. "That means that she can not only Take Over the properties and turn into animals but she can control them too."
"Yeah," Lisanna nodded. "Elf-niichan let me practice it on his parakeet when I was younger. I hardly ever use that part of my power though. Especially not in battle - I refuse to put innocent animals in danger for me. And one time when we were younger, Happy asked me to try it on him to see if it worked, but it didn't. I guess that's because the Exceed don't technically count as animals. But apparently this Jarvey does."
"Still, what an asshole," Gray muttered. "What the heck did we do to earn all those insults he threw at us?"
"Nothing. That just strikes me as his character," Lisanna shrugged. "I think we might need to take him with a pinch of salt."
"Well I'm hoping that he won't be around for very long," Gray scowled.
"Juvia is in agreement," the Water Mage coughed, cheeks colouring again as some of the Jarvey's suggestions ran through her head again.
"Up this hill, fatasses!" the Jarvey was standing out in the open again now at the top of a rise. "It's right here."
The three Mages trudged up the hill and as soon as they joined the large mustelid at the top they stopped, staring with wide eyes. For there indeed in a clearing before them was sitting another Fairy Sphere - this one at least five times as large as the one that they themselves had been in. But of course, they didn't know that since they hadn't even seen that one.
"There's the Fairy Tail mark," Juvia nodded, rubbing at her leg where her own mark was. (It was also the same place she'd punched her own leg to prevent Meredy from killing Gray and was still a little sore but mostly healed thanks to Wendy's previous efforts before Acnologia's attack)
"So this is what we were inside?" Lisanna asked. "Something like this? For two days?"
"Must have been cosy," the Jarvey snickered, which did nothing to help Juvia's blush.
"Does that mean the rest of our friends are in here?" Gray asked, stepping forward and placing his hand on the glowing sphere which was as solid as rock under his hand. He tried to peer through it and could make out some shapes beyond but he couldn't make out who they might be, though there did seem to be a lot of them.
"They could be," Lisanna remarked. "But what is this thing anyway?"
"Juvia thinks it looks like some type of magical forcefield," the Water Mage noted. "Perhaps this is what protected us from Acnologia's attack back on Tenroujima."
"Sounds logical but how do you explain it falling from the sky?" Gray asked.
"Juvia can't. And Juvia also can't explain why the three of us were in a separate sphere when others are in this one. After all, we were all standing in a circle when Acnologia struck."
"Another good point," Lisanna moved over and placed her ear against the Sphere, listening for any sound of movement coming from within but able to hear nothing. It was slightly warm to the touch and seemed to make a very, almost imperceptibly low magical humming noise. "So, what do we do now? Should we try and get inside it?"
"Step back," Gray huffed as he put his hands together. "I'll see if I can break my way through. If this thing did protect us from a dragon's roar attack then I doubt I can but I'll still try." As Lisanna and Juvia quickly backed off to give him room, Gray called, "ICE-MAKE… HAMM…"
Right before he could form the Hammer attack though the Sphere suddenly flashed brightly, forcing Gray to stumble backwards and shield his eyes from the brightness. The three Mages and the Jarvey watched as the Sphere pulsed and rippled across its entire surface, intricate golden patterns washing across it like lattices before the sphere slowly began to dissolve away right before their eyes.
"Well, that's convenient," Lisanna said as she hurried forward. "Mira-nee! Elf-niichan! Anyone, are you in there?"
"Uh… no… I don't think they are…" Gray's eyes widened as he saw through a gap in the vanishing Sphere.
Lisanna and Juvia both gasped when the Sphere dissipated entirely and they saw what was within.
It was definitely not their friends.
It was a number of large, green-feathered birds, each the size of a man. They had prominent red crests sticking out the tops of their heads, long, viciously sharp yellow beaks with two fangs protruding from the size, yellow feet with black, hooked talons, claws on their wings and long rat-like tails extending out from between their fan-like tail feathers.
Gray remembered these birds all too well - he and Loke had been attacked and swarmed by several of them during the second task of the S-Class exam. But there had been only five that time. Now, there were at least forty! And they were all spreading their wings and hissing in their direction.
"Clippers…" Lisanna breathed. "It's a flock of Clippers."
"Never mind what they're called, get back!" Gray cried, right at the same time as a cacophonous squawk rang through the clearing and the highly territorial, highly aggressive birds launched themselves into the air and towards them.
...
"Get out of the way!" Gray yelled as he wheeled around, dashing away as the large birds swept in towards him, the frontrunners opening their beaks and cawing as they closed in on his back. Juvia and Lisanna hurriedly joined him in their flight, reaching the top of the hill they'd just climbed up and leaping over the edge to slide straight down it as bird beaks snapped shut right where they'd been. They were so covered in filth and much already that a little more didn't matter.
The Clippers cawed and screeched indignantly and made to follow, but their progress was hindered by the trees blocking their way - their large wings not built for flying in such a comparatively dense forest. But that wasn't about to stop them and with a flurry of green feathers they flapped low over the treetops, following their progress down the hill from above until one of them found and gap big enough for it to dive through.
Gray cursed as he looked up to see a giant bird descending towards him from above, talons outstretched as if seeking out his face. The Ice Mage was reluctant to harm a creature that was basically just an animal defending what it thought was its territory and he dove backwards and out the way on the snaring talons, hitting the ground with his shoulder and rolling back onto his feet.
"Juvia!" he called.
"Yes!?" Juvia's attention was instantly directed towards him.
"Help me out! We'll create a slide to escape from these guys on!"
"You're so clever, Gray-sama!" Juvia took a moment to exult before she threw her arm out and generated a stream of water that whooshed across the ground through the trees ahead of them. Gray instantly thrust his hands into the water and used his magic to freeze it, leaping onto the icy slide and whooshing down it, freezing another section ahead of him whenever what he'd done already was about to run out. He could have easily created a slide without Juvia's help, but it required a great deal less magic from him to freeze water than it would have to mould the ice out of nothing.
As Juvia leapt onto the slide and breezed after him, Lisanna made to follow before she heard a yelling noise behind her and whirled around with wide eyes. One of the Clippers had managed to corner the Jarvey that had brought them to the Sphere they'd been contained inside and was trying to get through the roots of a large, partially overturned tree to try and get at the cowering creature. Lisanna dashed over and thrust her hands out, using her Take-Over to take control of the Clipper and force it to back away.
"Come on, quick!" Lisanna called to the Jarvey.
"You call these guys your friends, Miss Dandruff?" the Jarvey yelled as he broke cover and ran through them.
"No, we don't!" Lisanna answered as more cawing alerted her to another Clipper clattering in from the side and snapping at her with its beak. She abruptly morphed into her Cat shape to flip agilely to the side, scooping up the Jarvey under one arm and bounding onto the slide, sweeping along in the wake of the other two as they continued to work together to extend the slide.
But the Clippers were relentless and with a never-ending cacophony of screeching they set off in pursuit, the entire flock peering through the treetops to try and stick close behind the fleeing trio of humans, breaking through whenever they found the opportunity and taking another lunge at them, only to be dodged as Gray and Juvia swerved the slide abruptly in another direction.
...
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