The Rarest Flower {Zoe Schiffer}

The bell present at the top of the entrance of the medicinal shop made a ‘jing’ sound as the door to the shop was opened. A brunette stood at the entrance and looked at her surroundings. She went to the desk and looked at the other side. Spotting no one, she called out, “Hello, is anybody here? I’m here for the job you sent out. I’m a wizard from Fairy Tail, my name is Zoe.”

An old woman opened the door at the side of the counter which lead to the storeroom and stood across from Zoe with a scowl placed on her face. She sat by on a nearby stool and beckoned Zoe to come forward and sit on the chair next to hers. Zoe obliged and sat down.

The old woman sighed, “I’m the owner of this shop and I sent out the job request. I want you to go to the Spooky Forest and fetch out the plant known as Chiyu herb or you can call it healing herb. It has great medicinal properties and I want it for my shop; my business would flourish. Now the problem is that nobody is willing to go and well, I’m too old to go so you need to go get it.”

Zoe nodded at the old lady and stood up, “Don’t worry. I’ll go and be back in no time. How hard can fetching a plant be?” The old woman snickered under her breath and muttered something along the lines of "Stupid girl, you have no idea."

The old woman got up and handed Zoe a piece of paper, “This is how the Chiyu herb looks like.” Zoe looked aat the plant; it looked like an ordinary plant however, the green in its leaves was glowing immensely and Zoe was truly interested by it.

“What are you waiting for? Get going.” She snapped at Zoe. Zoe stepped outside of the store and said, “Sheesh, someone’s cranky. Well, I better start my journey. Chiyu herb, here I come!”

Zoe walked through the streets of Magnolia, heading towards the Spooky Forest. An eerie feeling coursed through her veins making her a bit edgy. She could see why people didn’t like coming to the Spooky Forest; it was beyond creepy. The wind mage stood at the starting of the woods and gulped, trying to keep her nervousness down. “Come on Zoe, what are you getting nervous about? It’s just a forest, a little spooky and maybe has giant monsters in it but you can totally handle it.” She paused, “Actually, no you can’t. Please, don’t let there be any giant monsters.”

With a deep breath, she entered the forest and starting walking, looking for the Chiyu herb. She took out the piece of paper that the old lady handed to her right before leaving and looked at the green and glowing small plant. Who would believe that such a small plant could have such medicinal properties? If Zoe got the plant then so many people could be helped. Thinking about this, Zoe’s sprits lifted up and she decided to examine from the sky to find any sign of the plant.

Zoe started flying in the sky, squinting her eyes and trying to spot the plant. A while passed and Zoe was beginning to get a bit tired. She landed down and sighed, a bit disappointed that she wasn’t able to find the plant. “Where is it? Why can’t I find it?”

The brunette walked a bit in the forest trying to spot a river to try to freshen up a bit. She heard rushing water and walked towards where the sound was resonating from. In front of her stood a majestic waterfall and Zoe was mesmerized by it. A waterfall in the middle of the Spooky Forest; maybe it wasn’t as creepy as she thought. She decided to hang out the waterfall for a while, then she could resume her mission. However, just as Zoe was about to remove her boots, she spotted something at the edge of the waterfall. It was the Chiyu Herb!

“There it is!" She exclaimed. Zoe had found it, now she could head back and give it to the old lady and be done with this. Who knew it would be this easy? But alas, she spoke too soon as from behind her, she heard some rustling and turned around, readying herself in a battle stance because she sensed that whatever was behind those trees and bushes was not good.

Five wolves emerged from behind the bushes and circled Zoe. They waggled their tail and stared greedily at her, obviously thinking of her as some sort of food. She knew that her mission wouldn’t be easy and it was a mistake to think so. One of the wolves stopped circling and lunged at her; Zoe stepped aside by taking off into the air and landed a few feet away from that wolf. Another lunged at her from the side and Zoe successfully evaded it. She noticed that another one was approaching as well and so, jumped into the air remaining afloat.

“Aerial Blow Away!” Zoe called out. A light blue magic circle appeared in front of her hands that were shot forth and from it came a spiral of wind directly aiming at the area below her where the wolves were gathered up. They all jumped out of the way however, the force of the wind managed to blow away two of the wolves making them hit a nearby tree that resulted in them getting injured and groaning in pain.

Zoe placed her feet back on the ground and readied herself for another attack just as the other three wolves came at her. She raised her hands in front of her and shot out yet another blast of Aerial Blow Away. The wind rushed towards the three wolves in a spiral motion and engulfed them within it. The force of the attack sent the three wolves rushing backwards either slamming into a nearby tree or the ground.

Content with her attack, Zoe turned around to go retrieve the plant. However, as soon as she did that, one of the wolf that she had attacked previously lunged at her and used its claws to make a deep gash in her left arm. Zoe stumbled back whilst clutching her arm in agony. The excruciating pain overflowed her body and she ground her teeth to keep her cries in. “Damn you….” The wolf was joined by its previous companion and they circled the wind mage as she tried to numb the feeling of the agony in her arm.

The brunette closed her eyes and took a deep breath to forget about the pain that engulfed her left arm. She tried to focus on her opponents which were the wolves. ‘Breath in, breath out. Concentrate on the wolves.’ Slowly opening her eyes, she peered at the wolves in front of her. The other three whom she had just attacked seemed to have recovered and joined their pack.

Zoe’s eyes turned to those of slits as she stared at the wolves with anger evident in her eyes. The pain in her arm began to numb and she could move it now, albeit it hurt a bit when she moved but not enough to slow down her movements. “You pesky wolves are done for!” She growled, lunging upwards into the air whist doing a mid-air backflip; Zoe aimed her left leg at the wolf at the forefront and attempted to kick it. The wolf dodged in time making her kick hit the ground and all of them dispersed into different directions, still regarding her as food.

She clenched her teeth and decided to remain above in the air where they wouldn’t be able to touch her and she could keep a keen eye on them. Jumping into the air, she cried out, “Air Blades!” A light green magic circle appeared directly in front of the brunette and shot out 15 blades from within it. As the blades were exiting the magic circle, Zoe spun in a 360 degree angle so that the blades could be aimed at all directions.
The blades dispersed in all directions, aimlessly heading towards areas where the wolves were located. Four of the wolves got struck by the blade; two of them in the abdomen and two on one of their legs. The four wolves groaned and fell down on the ground seemingly unconscious. One of the wolf had managed to hide behind a tree, thus evading the attacks. Zoe noticed it and flew towards it, heading in a downward direction. However, at that point, something lunged at her causing her to hit the ground on her back with the attacker above her.

Looking towards the attacker that pined the brunette down on the ground, she grinded her teeth. Above her was none other than a wolf. But he wasn’t alone; as before, there were four more accompanying him. All in all, there were six wolves present on the battlefields. “You wolves really like to stick together, don’t you?” Zoe seethed, “Well, I’ll make you all disperse into directions where you’ll never be able to move again much less be together.”

Being pinned underneath a wolf whilst saying that, Zoe did not look threatening in any way. In fact, if the wolves could laugh, they probably would. The wolf above her snapped at Zoe, being only centimeters away from her face. Even though the wind mage should have been concerned about getting eaten alive by the wolves that surrounded her, she was more concentrated on the fact that the wolf spat at her.

“Seriously?” she cried out in exasperation. Closing her eyes and raising her right hand that was available – and thankfully, not pinned down – she used her levitation ability to raise the wolf exactly above her making him levitate in the air. “Aerial Blow Away!” she called out, releasing the wolf from its levitation state only to be hit by the gush of wind from below him, sending him spiraling upwards.

The wolf landed a few feet away from Zoe, groaning in pain from its high fall. “Air Blades!” the wind mage cried out as she sat on one knee, forming five blades in between her fingers and aiming it at the wolf, successfully rendering him incapable of moving.

The brown-eyed female got up to her full height – which was not that much – and looked at the remaining wolves. “Five of them, let’s get this over with!”

Zoe rushed towards two of the wolves standing closest to her – one of them being from the previous batch -  and simultaneously, used her attack ‘Air Blades’ by forming blades between each of her fingers in both of her hands making them a total of ten blades. She aimed at the blades at the two wolves and jumped into the air, doing a 360 pirouette and shooting the blades from her hands. “Take that!” Two of the blades managed to hit one wolf successfully whereas the other dodged the blades but unfortunately, got hit by the last one.  “Well, almost bull’s eye.”

The other two wolves ran towards Zoe as she landed on the ground and raised their claws forth to attempt to strike a deep gash. As the first one neared her, she side-stepped and raised her right-leg forth to hit it directly in the abdomen. The other snuck up from behind her but Zoe noticed it however, just as she jumped in the air to avoid the attack, the wolf managed to strike her a bit around the edges of the right part of her lower back. It wasn’t that deep but enough to leave a mark.

“Three more to go!” The brunette exclaimed as the three wolves who had crashed into the trees slowly started to get up. All three of them growled at her and lunged towards the wind mage who stood only a few feet away from them. As the first one neared her, Zoe did a backflip to avoid the wolf’s claws however, just as she did that, a second wolf appeared from behind the first one and aimed its claws at Zoe’s abdomen.

The attack was aimed at Zoe when she had done the backflip and her feet had yet to land on the ground. She managed to avoid the attack at the nick of time by commanding the wind to swiftly pull her back a few inches so she narrowly evaded it; however, it seemed as though the wolf was able to scratch her, though it was just a tiny bit that left a few shreds on her shirt.

Landing on the ground away from the wolves, Zoe glared icily at them, “Tch. This was one of my favourite shirts and you just ruined it. Now you’re done.” The brunette rose into the air and spread her arms to the side whilst bellowing, “Wind Bringer!”

The sky turned a hazy colour of grey and from the center emerged a small tornado which encompassed the three wolves that stood directly beneath it. The wolves howled in frustration as they spun around in the tornado, getting slashed by continuous blades which were present within the tornado. The wolves grew weak the more the blades hit them and finally, gave up.

“Now aren’t you good wolves.” Zoe chuckled as the tornado disappeared removing the grey haze from the sky. The wolves landed on the ground in a heap and struggled to get up only to retreat from the area and return to their original dwelling place not wanting to anger the wind mage anymore.

“Now then, let’s get that plant!” Zoe exclaimed as she landed on the ground and walked towards the Chiyu plant. She carefully dug the plant out from the ground and took out the pot that she had brought with her. Surprisingly, the pot that was within her bag was unharmed amid all of the chaos.

Zoe gently kept the plant inside the pot with some sand as well. Lifting the pot in her arms, she decided to head back and give the plant to the grumpy old lady. “Maybe getting this plant might heal her grumpy attitude.” Zoe said, jokingly to herself as she made her way back to the shop.

Reaching the town, the brunette entered the shop and saw the old lady sweeping the floor. “Well?” the old lady questioned. Zoe grinned at the lady and raised the plant to show it to her, “Here’s your plant, Oba-san!”

“Hmm, I didn’t expect you to actually be able to get it.” The old lady said as Zoe handed her the plant. “Well, didn’t I surprise you then.” Keeping the Chiyu plant on the table, the old lady took Zoe’s left arm as she winced and examined it. “You got attacked by a wolf, eh? Come with me.”

The shop owner made Zoe sit on a chair and went inside a room present in the shop. She came back a minute later holding a first-aid kit in her hand. Opening the kit, she started tending to Zoe’s wound. As the old lady was done bandaging it, Zoe stood up and smiled at the lady, “Arigatō, Oba-san.”

She nodded at Zoe and went back into the room only to come back with a small pouch. Handing it to Zoe, she said, “Here. This is the reward for your work.” Zoe took it and bid the old lady farewell before stepping out of the shop and heading back to her guild.