Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 49

The sky was slowly starting to lighten up when they had finally gotten everything packed up together and they were heading towards the rocks.

"Why do we always have to wake up so early...?" Felix murmured while rubbing his eyes. "The sun is not up yet..."

"It won't kill you", Freed assured holding his son's hand. "When you finally start your own missions, you have to wake up earlier than normally sometimes."

"Where are we going this early?" Felix asked crankily. It would have been fun if they could just stay for a while, sleep well and eat, maybe swim and play with sand.

"We won't be walking too long", Freed said amused because of such whinge. "Once we're at Baluhu's cottage, maybe you can play with Chester outside and built a sandcastle."

"Oh", Felix said and he was instantly a lot happier. "That will be fun!"

They all climbed over the rocks and it took only a few minutes to find Baluhu. He was sleeping, snoring loudly and lying on the sand, hugging tightly his flute and his long white hair was scattered all around. As they got closer, Laxus wasn't sure if he was ready to believe that this old man was the one who called all those spirits.

Somehow... This old man only reminded him of Makarov. It was not impressive.

"Baluhu?" Freed said as they got closer and the old man muttered something in his sleep.

"He snores louder than dad", Felix murmured and Laxus just grunted.

"Hey! We're here!" Bickslow yelled and finally Baluhu shifted, opening his eyes.

He yawned and slowly got up, dusting some sand off his clothes.

"You lot sure didn't rush too much", he said looking at them and then he cleared his throat. "As these two might have told you already, I am Baluhu", he said touching his chest with his hand. "I have heard that you've been looking for me for some time already and I've been waiting for you all here. These two have informed me you have some questions, I am glad that I can help you youngsters so I have decided I will do my best to answer all of your questions -"

"Sure, so what can you tell us about Netherworld Magic?" Laxus asked, not really in a mood for such a dramatic nonsense. It didn't work anyway after they had seen Baluhu dozing away with drool all over his chin.

Baluhu harrumphed looking at Laxus.

"Thank you, now you ruined the whole mood", he said annoyed. "It would sound really stupid now if I tried to continue after that."

"Only after that?" Ever whispered amused and Bickslow almost chortled.

"Oh, I see..." Baluhu murmured leaning against his flute. "It seems that you are not really in need to hear my answers -"

"No, no, please do continue", Evergreen said.

"Whatever, doesn't feel the same anymore", Baluhu said waving his hand and he turned around. "Let's just start walking so I can get home some day."

So they started walking, following the slightly nuts old man.

It didn't take them long to finally arrive at Baluhu's home. It was... an interesting place. It was small but looked really cosy, even if it certainly wasn't pretty to look at. Yet it still had some kind of charm in it, maybe because it was definitely flashy place.

There were colourful pieces of glass dangling from strings outside and lots of rugs all around. The door - there wasn't even really any need for an actual door, but guess it made the place feel more like a house - was open and lots of multicolored bead strings made sure not too much bugs got inside.