Face Your Fears (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Into The Trees

{LEXI'S POV}
With those instructions, Mato-kun herds our group of six into the transportation array Hikaru analyzed earlier and activates it.

My stomach knots and my throat closes up as, for the next few seconds, magic power hums around me. Its like I'm riding an elevator up a rainbow, curve and all. Colors zoom past me at the speed of sound.

Then it stops and we're standing at the edge of a giant forest. I vomit.

A dozen or so floating lacrima are surrounding us, no doubt broadcasting everything to Domus Flau. I groan. Maybe they didn't catch it? I shouldn't have had such a big breakfast.

A holographic projection of Mato-kun appears in front of us. "You have until noon-kabo. If you don't make it back to this location in time, you'll automatically score zero points and you'll have to walk back to Domus Flau-kabo! Good luck-kabo!"

His image turns staticky then blinks out.

"Uh... is that it?" Lynn asks hesitantly. She looks down at the red cloak and picnic basket she possesses. We all have the same gear, each of our red cloaks emblazoned with our respective guild marks.

"Guess so. See you all back here at noon." Mirror says, running off.

Edwin opens his mouth. I don't hear anything, but Edwin suddenly runs off in a different direction. The other two decide not to enter the dryad forest on foot, instead taking the direct approach to the tree canopy. Lynn creates a fluffy cloud in the shape of a wooly sheep and floats slowly up. Axis uses a chain.

At first, the end of his chain is a grappling hook. Then Axis thinks better of it and simply shoots the chain so it wraps around the tree rather than embedding into it, to cause less damage. He swings away.

I'm left standing there, staring up at the wooden platforms 75 feet in the air where the dryads live, and the leaf canopy 50 feet above that.

"No one said they were so tall!" I scream, pulling at my hair in frustration.

A lacrima bobs sympathetically next to me, probably giving everyone at Domus Flau a good laugh.

I sigh and approach the nearest mega tree. I've never seen a tree so thick, and the bark has a dark blue tinge to it. Vines hang from all of them. Something squishes under my feet.

I lift my foot and immediately regret it. The smell is putrid. The rotten Notch fruit has brown skin and sticky yellow juice the consistency of syrup. It reeks like fresh sewage on a hot day.

I grab a stick and use it to scrape the rotten Notch fruit off the bottom of my sneaker, but the juice is persistent. I liked these shoes. Shame, since Nashi's gonna have to burn them now.

Closer inspection reveals that the ground is littered with bad fruit. As I recall Lily saying that they let the rotten Notch fall, one splats on the ground a few feet from me. I gag at the overpowering stench.

It's probably good fertilizer, but no wonder the dryad live so far from the ground.

Speaking of the dryad's homes, I'm going to have to get up there if I want to have a chance of getting treasure. Which means I have to climb.

I grab at the bark of the nearest tree. Surprisingly, it's strong like iron. That's good news for me.

I tie a vine around my waist, then find decent hand and footholds to climb up the tree. After roughly 20 minutes of sweaty hands and slippery feet, I look down. The ground is 3 feet below me.

I've never been good at climbing trees.

My strength gives out and I find that my makeshift harness isn't nearly as comfortable as I thought it would be. After the vine halts my fall (drawing a pained "Oof!" from me), I find myself swinging like a pendulum. I dangle dizzyingly, staring at the ground spinning below me.