Chapter 58 - Progress on All Fronts

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

The sun was beginning to sink low in the sky that day. After wrapping up as much of the paperwork as she could handle, Isa had made her way down to the port to wait for the last ferry from Johdine to arrive. The job the girls had taken wasn't that dangerous, she couldn't help but worry about them. She'd have to have a talk with Davin later about letting the guild members take so many risks.

Thankfully, the ferry pulled in right on schedule, and the girls where among the first to disembark. "Hey everyone!" She waved to them, and they all turned to head in her direction. Something was off through; they all looked pale, Sasha in particular, who seemed to be jumping at shadows. They all looked unharmed, baring Amber of course, but something was definitely up. "Did something happen?"

"N-No..." Leena mumbled, pulling the job poster out of her fanny pack and shoving it at her. "We failed the mission though. We didn't find anything."

"We didn't find anything..." Sasha repeated, seemingly in a daze. "No old lady living there... No old lady living..." She continued to mumble incoherently, seaming like she'd had the shock of her life.

Bell patted her friend on the shoulder, ushering her down the road. "We're going to go home."

Leena skipped over to join the others, taking Sasha's arm over her shoulder. "Yeah, better luck next time, right?" The trio took a few steps into town before Leena perked up again, wearing her usual bright smile. "Thanks for coming with us Amber! We really appreciate it!" Bell leaned back and waved as well, and even Sasha raised her arm, even if it looked like she barely had the energy to walk.

Isa looked over the flyer again. It seemed pretty straight forward, but failing the job shouldn't have that big a disappointment, should it? Amber stood slightly behind her, sheepishly waving back as the girls departed, and Isa turned to her for answers. "Ok, what happened?"

Amber shuffled back and forth, either like she was concocting a lie, or didn't know how to explain. "It was just a creepy old house..." She mumbled finally. "And... Sasha scares really easily."

Something in the back of her mind told Isa that wasn't the full story, but considering they came back unharmed, it really wasn't that big a deal. "Well, I'm glad you made it back safe and sound. Because I've got a bit of a surprise for you."

A small black dog with white markings on it’s face whimpered at her feet, and Amber turned around to see Carra and Chico standing behind her. "You'[re OK..." She mumbled softly, throwing her arms around her tummy.

Amber winced in pain, bit did her best to fight back an expression and patted the young girl on the head. Isa giggled, feeling a warm sensation growing in her heart. "Carra's been asking me to let her spend the night to keep you company, but I never knew if you where well enough.” She folded the flyer up and stuffed it into her back pocket; more paperwork to add to the workload. "But, seeing as how you just came back from chaperoning Leena and her friends, I guess I was worried for nothing."

Amber smiled appreciatively, even as Carra clutched her back right where her wounds where. "T-thanks."

"Just one little hiccup through..." Isa added. "I don't have any more blankets, and Carra forgot to bring hers. Do you mind going to get yours from Axel's house? It'll be a shorter walk than going back to her apartment."

"Sure." She nodded.

"Great." Isa’s heart warmed when she saw the big smiles both the girls faces. After a moments search, Isa produced a small key and handed it to Carra, then took her cap off and placed it on the young girl's head. "Can you go open up for me? I've got to go see Jaina about something."

Nodding slightly, causing Isa's cap to droop down and cover one of her eyes, Carra and Chico marched off towards Isa's house, while Amber headed back to her and Axel's place. Isa turned to leave as well, watching a few workers finish mooring the ferry to the dock with a long sigh "I really do worry too much..." She stretched her arms up over her head, feeling the tension of spending several hours hunched over a desk work its way out of her muscles. "Ok... Now to see how Shelly's been doing..."

"Zeke..." Mumbled an annoyed Axel, slowly ascending the steps to his house on the edge of the city. "Is this really all we're coming here for? I'm supposed to be relaxing."

"C'mon Axel, please?" The tiny feline bounced up and down in Axel's shoulder, eagerly pointing towards the door. "You're fine. You've already got your magic back, and I can't sleep without my favorite pillow."

Axel grumbled, but seeing as they where already here, made no attempt to argue. He quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside, where Zeke hopped from his perch and glided through the house. "Just the pillow!" He called after him. "I'm not lugging all your stuff back to Dad's place." Zeke was out of sight before he'd so much as uttered his second word, but he knew Zeke had to have heard him. The house wasn't that big after all.

"Axel?!" A voice came from the back room, which Axel recognized as belonging to Amber. "Is that you?"

"Yeah!" He yelled back, spotting her sandals laying haphazardly in the foyer. "Zeke wanted to get some of his stuff."

There was a brief pause, in which Axel heard some mumbling, before Amber called again. "Umm... Can you come here a second?!"

"'Kay." Axel shrugged. Knowing Zeke, he'd get distracted trying to find what he was looking for, so he'd probably have some time to kill. He quickly strolled through the house, brushing the semi-open door to Amber's room open with his shoulder. "So what's u-OH MY GOD!" Amber was sitting on the bed with her back to him, but the thing that made him stutter was the fact that she wasn't wearing a shirt. Just a grey bra that Axel only caught a glimpse of before hastily backing out of the room again. "Sorry, sorry. Should have knocked."

"The door was open." She muttered, stifling a giggle.

Having heard the whole exchange, Zeke strolled out of his and Axel's room with a small pillow tucked under his arm. He wasn't as flustered as Axel, but was no less confused. "Why don't you have a shirt on...?"

"I-I came by to get a blanket, but my wrapping broke when I tried to pick something up." She held out a loose pair of bandage ends, connected to a rather shoddy wrapping job that hung loosely around her tummy. She then waved with her other hand, still encased in a mitten of gauze and tape. "I just need a hand. I can't get it myself."

Axel peaked around the door. "Why don;t you get Armeria to help?"

"I tried" The tiny imp mumbled, standing on the bed next to Amber. "I can't do it either."

Axel gave a long sigh, but finally decided the he might as well help her out. "You know Jaina'll kill me if she hears about this this, right?" Amber giggled a bit and shuffled over, allowing Axel enough room to sit on the edge of the bed next to her. Seeing the job she'd done made him glad he decided to help. There where three stab wounds situated on the flat of Amber's back, but most of the bandages had drooped down around her waist. There was also a gauze pad intertwined in the bandages, that Axel guessed was suppose to be over her wounds. "Yeah... I'm going to have to redo this."

"Than can you hurry up?" She mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. "This is weird for me too, OK?"

Nodding quickly, Axel set about re-bandaging her back. He realized instantly why she'd had so much trouble. Keeping the pad in place and tying off the bandages proved a difficult task with two hands. With one of them immobile, it was no wonder Amber was having a hard time. After a few attempts, Axel had gotten everything looking they way it should, or at least had her wounds covered. Isa could probably help her do a better job once she went back at her house. "Ok, I think I'm done." He mumbled, glancing back at Zeke, who had just watched the whole thing in silence. "Are you-?"

Mid way through his sentence, Amber dropped back to leaned against his chest. "You came back for me..." She mumbled, sounding a little sad. "Back at the prison... You came back to get me."

Axel felt his heart beating in his ears. He did his best to stare over her shoulder at the wall opposite the bed, and nothing else. Despite the temptation. "Well, yeah. I wasn't just going to leave you." He spoke to keep his eyes from drifting down, but he quickly shook his head and added. "I mean; I came back for everyone, but-."

Slowly, Amber reached back and took hold of his wrists, wrapping his arms around her. "Thanks."

By now, Axel was really confused. She normally kept her distance from him, but now it was like she didn't want him to leave her alone. That, and the fact that she was leaning on his chest while wearing only a bra. Something that had cycled back to the forefront of his mind around a dozen times since he'd entered the room.

"Axel and Amber, sittin' in a tree..." Zeke sang, snickering into his pillow. "K-I-S-S..."

Axel grabbed a pillow off the bed and lobbed it at him, causing Zeke to scramble towards the kitchen in a fit of hysterical laughter. By the time he'd looked back, Amber had slipped into her shirt once again, and was sitting at the edge of the bed with an appreciative smile on her face. "Guess... I'll see you later."

Axel nodded slowly, allowing Amber to pass him by with her blanket tucked under her arm. It wasn't until she'd left the house did his heart-rate go down again, and he dropped down on the living room couch to collect his thoughts. It was strange to see her looking so vulnerable. Was she still shaken up from their last job? Was that why she was acting weird? It seemed unlikely, but Axel couldn't help but feel that there was something he was missing that would make sense of what just happened. It did confirm one thing though, something Axel realized he'd known for a while now. "Damn..." He swore under his breath. "She really does look cute."

Far outside the edge of Merow city, the sound of clacking sticks echoed over the trees. Jaina stood in the small field in front of her house, balancing a training stick over her shoulder. Shelly stood opposite her, holding two shorter training sticks in each hand and covered in sweat. She wore a white muscle shirt and blue, baggy sweat pants, both of which where coated in dirt.

"C'mon, baby girl..." Jaina mumbled to her. "We're wasting daylight."

Taking a deep breath, Shelly charged. She started with a slash from the right, followed quickly by an overhead chop with her other hand. Jaina deflected the first, and simply stepped out of the way of the second. She swiped low at Shelly's legs, but she hopped out of the way just in the nick of time.

It wasn't a graceful landing, Shelly landed on her hands and knees, quickly tucking and rolling up to her feet. Her next attack was a charge, holding her crossed training sticks in front of her. Jaina stopped this attack dead on, and Shelly's arms collapsed under the force. Her crossed training sticks where locked against Jaina's, and no mater how much she pushed, Jaina wouldn't budge.

Suddenly, Shelly jumped forward, throwing her head and shoulders over the clash. Her head stopped an inch from Jaina's face, who narrowed her eye in irritation. "Again?"

Before Shelly had landed, Jaina took a quick step back and allowed Shelly to fall into her. Off balance, Shelly stumbled and quickly slashed to the side, hoping to ward off Jaina's advance. Unfortunately, Jaina had remained a safe distance away, and smacked the back of Shelly's hand with her training stick. "Ah!" Shelly dropped the weapon instantly, clutching at her hand. Grimacing, Jaina spun her training stick between her fingers and brought the end down onto the top of Shelly's head. "Oww!" Shelly dropped to her knees, clutching her head and gritting her teeth in anger. "Jaina!"

"You lost." Jaina spat, jabbing the end of her training stick into the dirt. "You went for that dumb headbutt move again. I don't know where you got this obsession with headbutting people, but give it a rest. No martial art in the world is going to teach you to hit someone with your forehead."

Shelly stood up with a pout. "But Geno does it all the time..."

"I don't care. Geno's an idiot!" Jaina walked back to her hut and grabbed a water bottle off one of the garden fence-posts. After a long drink, she pointed down the path towards town. "And you know the rules. You lost: so that's one lap to the guild and back. Hop to it."

Shelly dropped her other training stick. "But we've been doing this all day... I'm tired, Jaina."

"Good, that's the point." She hissed back. "We're trying to build up your stamina. Because all this ain't going to mean a damn thing if you run out of breath thirty seconds into a fight. So get going."

Letting out a long groan of defeat, Shelly slowly turned and began jogging don the path. Just as she passed the edge of Jaina's garden, Isa appeared around the bend in the road. "Hi sweetie." Shelly nodded slightly, but kept on going regardless. Isa watched her for a few seconds, then turned around to see Jaina sitting on the front step of her hut. "So..." She began, spying the training sticks and scuff marks in the dirt. "How's she doing?"

"Short version?" Jaina mumbled, taking another long sip of water. "She sucks. We've only been doing this for a few weeks, and she's picking up the basics. But she keeps trying to mimic what the other guys on her team do. and that sure as hell isn't doing her any favors."

Isa looked back down the path again, but Shelly was out of sight by now. "That bad, huh?"

"Well no, actually, she understands exactly how they do what they do. The problem is she doesn't have the muscle tone, reflexes, experience, instincts, or ferocity that the guys do. So, you know, it doesn't help her." She took another long drink, emptying the bottle, which she then pitched across the property. "And... I just smacked her on the head... God, that felt terrible." She grimaced again, massaging the back of her neck. "Her mom must be turning in her grave right abot now..."

Isa retrieved the bottle Jaina had thrown, trying to sound encouraging. "You're trying to help her. Their last job showed her that she needs to learn how to protect herself, and that's what she’s doing." She balanced the bottle on another fence post and thoughtfully crossed her arms. "I think Yoshi would be thrilled that you're the one teaching her."

Considering her words for a moment, Jaina let out a big sigh. "That's great, but there's also the problem of me not knowing how to teach her. She's used to books; and the only think she'll learn about fighting from a book is how to get herself killed."

Glancing down the path to make sure Shelly hadn't returned yet, Isa said. "If it helps... I think that's why she came to you." Jaina stared lazily up at her, a look that told Isa she didn't understand. "Think of it this way; If she wanted to learn from a book, she would've came to me. But she knows that won't really get anywhere like that. So, she's come to you."

Jaina sat a moment longer, before reaching back to her water bottle again. Forgetting it was empty, she turned it upside down over her mouth, then scoffed and tossed it aside once more. "You know, it's really annoying knowing your own twin sister is three times smarter than you are."

Isa began to chuckle. Two weeks ago, before any of this happened, she'd never imagined she'd be having a conversation about how to best train Shelly to fight. Yet strangely, here they where. "When she comes back, do you mind if I train with her a bit? I think I have an idea."

"Hey, if you think it'll work." Jaina pushed off her knees and threw open the door to her hut. "I need a real drink. Too sober for this crap."

The sounds of Jaina rummaging around her hut filled the air. Clanging glass, creaking cupboards, the occasional curse word thrown in for good measure. All thing's Isa had grown used to hearing any time she visited her sister at home. She, meanwhile, was trying to think of the best way to teach Shelly the ways of combat. Jaina was right, experience was definitely a good way to learn, but maybe not the best way to start. Shelly was a thinker, acting on instinct probably wouldn't come as naturally to her as it did to the other members of her team.

With that in mind, she retrieved the training sticks and returned to the hut just as Shelly came back around the edge of the path. She was gasping and puffing for air, and despite keeping a jogger's pace she was only moving at walking speed. "Hey honey." Isa mumbled as Shelly collapsed to her knees at the edge of the fence. "How's it coming?"

"My legs..." She gasped. "Feel like jelly..."

"Oh, I know sweetie. It's going to be tough." Reaching around the door to Jaina's hut, Isa procured another water bottle and headed it to her. Shelly greedily unscrewed the cap, gulping down half it’s contents in a single swing. "We're going to take a little break, then I want to try something with you, alright?" Shelly nodded without argument, wiping her mouth of some water she'd spilled in her haste.

The window overlooking the garden flew open, and Jaina stuck her head out with a pair of bear bottles between her fingers. "Hey, Isa." She called, clacking the bottles together. "Want one?"

"No thanks." She furrowed her brow. Jaina knew she didn't drink. And even if she did, this definitely wasn't the best time. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Isa refocused on Shelly. "So, can you tell me why you asked Jaina to teach you to fight?"

Shelly looked confused. "She used a sword back when she was still guild master. Didn't she?"

"Sure did." Jaina cut in, an air of pride carrying in her voice. "I could slice and dice like the best of 'em."

"Why do you want to use swords?" Isa continued.

For a moment, it looked like Shelly didn't have an answer. That is, until her face grew a little red and she said. "Because I'm not as strong as everyone else..." She stared at her hands, no doubt thinking back to how helpless she'd been while held captive at Bloody Smile. "Not physically..."

"Jaina tells me that you keep trying to fight like you are, though." Said Isa, using the training stick to gesture to the field they'd been training in. "You know you can't win a physical battle, so you want a weapon to overcome that. But you don't know any other way to use a weapon, beside with brute force. You've got the right idea in mind, but aren't capitalizing on your strengths."

Though she listened intently, Shelly was still no less confused. "I don't get it."

"Sorry to say baby girl, but you're a shrimp." Jaina cut in again, finishing her beer already. "Which is odd when you think about it. Your mom was about average height and your dad is build like a gorilla on steroids. Yet somehow you and Leo came out as runts." Her attention shifted to Isa. "Explain that one to me, why don't ya?"

Ignoring her sister, Isa continued. "Think of it this way: both Jak and Kat use Take Over Magic. Jak uses the Beast-Soul type, while Kat uses Demon-Soul type." She drew a line in the sand with her stick. On one side, she drew a small ball with bat wings, on the other a ball with a wide, toothy smile. "Why do you think that is?"

"Jak uses it to get stronger." Shelly said quickly. "Beast-Soul forms increase strength, or give you claws or horns. And... Kat uses it to augment her magic, because Demon-Soul types usually come with another sort of magic. Let her do things besides what her Shadow Magic can do."

"Correct." Isa beamed, looking like she was enjoying herself. "They use it to play to their strengths. Either gaining muscle mass or enhancing their magical capabilities." With that in mind, Isa took the two shorter training sticks and handed them to Shelly, beckoning her back to her feet. "You just need to learn how to maximize on your strengths."

Still shaky in the knees, Shelly braced herself on the fence-post. "How do I do that?"

"I think it's better if you figure that out on your own." She said, shaking her head. "How about this, who would win in a fight: a wolf, or a lion?"

Shelly tipped her head to the side, not seeing the point of the question. "The lion." She paused a moment, deciding after a moment to explain her choice. "Lions are bigger than wolfs. They can bite a lot harder too."

"So how would a wolf win?" She asked. Shelly thought a moment longer, but Isa shook her head just as it appeared an answer came to her. "You don't need to tell me, just think about it." Isa spread her feet apart slightly, placing one arm behind her back and holding her training stick out in front of her. Shelly watched her for a moment, not sure of what to think, and Isa softly smiled at her. "C'mon, I think it'll make more sense to you in a second."

Glancing at her training sticks, Shelly looked up with confusion. "Do... You know how to use swords?"

"Not really." Isa shook her head. "But that's not what I'm trying to teach you."

While that didn't really explain anything, Shelly sighed and took a fighting stance, trusting that Isa was right. She eyed Isa from head to tow, looking for any opening she could find just like Jaina had taught her. There where no obvious flaws in Isa's stance, none that she could pick up on at least, so she decided on a frontal assault.

Dashing forward, Shelly quickly swiped forward with her right hand. Isa hopped backward, just out of Shelly's reach. Surprised at how easily she'd been evaded, Shelly gave chase, slashing downward with her left hand and jabbing with the right. Isa backed away again, and twirled on her heel to evade the jab. Quickly, Shelly slashed towards her again, and again Isa gracefully hopped out of the way. The battle moved to the yard, where Shelly continued to slash and swipe at Isa, and Isa continued to move just out of her reach with the barest effort.

It wasn't long before Shelly wore herself out, her arms dangled from her shoulders and she desperately gasped for air. Isa gently poked her in the stomach with the end of her training stick, still wearing the same smile she'd warn throughout the short battle. "So?" She asked, taking a step back and holding the middle of her training stick with both hands. "Do you still think strength is the only way to win a fight?"

Sucking in one deep breath after the other with an obvious frustration plane on her face, Shelly suddenly perked up, like a light-bulb had just on off in her mind. "Oh..." She wiped the sweat off her brow, and took another deep breath to finally getting her breathing under control. "Yeah, think I get it now."

Next Chapter – Chapter 59 - The Folly of Youth