Phoenix Fire || Fairy Tail [1]

𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐢𝐢. 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭

𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜: 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙗𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙡 𝙛𝙩. 𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙡
❛ 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. ❜

◊

Rose trekked through the woods silently, carefully adjusting her grip on Kou so as not to disrupt his slumber. The night was filled with the chirping of crickets and the soft whistling of the wind through the leaves. She caught a glimpse of the bright silvery moon far above her, through the interlocking branches of the trees. She glanced back down at Kou, carefully brushing the muffler she had wrapped around him back into position.

"Geez..." she mumbled, a small smile tugging the corner of her lips upwards.

With a soft huff, she adjusted Kou's position in her arms so he would be more comfortable. As she did so, her eyes roamed the dark woods around her. Barely any light was let in due to the thick roof of leaves overhead, but thanks to Rose's magic she was able to distinguish most of her surroundings.

Her crimson red eyes immediately darted to narrow suspiciously at a cluster of low-lying shrubs at the base of a nearby tree, a scowl tilting the corners of her lips downwards.

A sudden blur of silver flashed in a straight line, aimed directly at the aggravated phoenix slayer's forehead.

With a twitch of her hand, Rose used a burst of fire to send the approaching blade hurtling away into the undergrowth. Her expression remained neutral, the only sign of her irritation being a slight twitch of her brow.

The phoenix slayer's crimson eyes flashed dangerously.

A figure darted from the shrubs, sprinting towards Rose. The girl immediately sidestepped, swinging her leg against the person's back as she did so and sending the male stumbling.

He recovered quickly and spun around with a wild snarl, slashing at the girl with a short dagger in a frenzied fashion. The blade made a high-sounding whistle as it swiped down towards her.

Rose scowled.

With a quick movement, she had swept herself and Kou out of the blade's path, with the weapon ending up being hurled across the clearing before being buried up to its hilt in the trunk of a tree.

Before their attacker could retaliate she shot a ball of fire, which the male recklessly charged through – using his cloak as cover. Rose was forced to spin away from another slash.

Before she could regain her balance and adjust her hold on the still unconscious Kou, the attacker darted at her again – this time with his attack aimed for Kou. Rose was forced to make a split-second decision, and twisted to the side so she would receive the blow instead.

A low hiss of pain escaped her teeth in response to the slash of the weapon against her skin, but she had to ignore her injury and continue fighting unless she wanted to risk Kou's safety.

She moved Kou to her free arm, feeling irritated that she was unable to fight at full power; due to the awkwardness of cradling a child whilst defending and attacking. Somehow, she managed to shift him to her free arm.

"Flame Phoenix's Screech!"

A burst of white-hot flames streamed to the attacker, scorching the ground around him. Having not expected the attack, he stumbled backwards and slammed into the tree behind him. Rose raced forward before he could make another move, and slammed the back of her heel at the crouching male's head.

She had limited her strength, so she was certain the action would give him a mild concussion at the worst. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Rose's vision blurred, black dots dancing in her eyes. Her gaze trailed down to her side hesitantly, and she suppressed a groan as she realised how much blood she had lost. The wound had begun to close, but the process was slow. It was obvious that the dagger had had some kind of poison on its blade, causing it to bleed more than it usually would. She'd used something similar before, though it tended to make for a messy clean-up.