Staying Cool [Natalia's B Rank Exam]

Natalia took shaky steps along the path completely shaken by her trip to Mount Helicon, she didn't expect the place to be flying, she had already passed out once on the way here but she was still determined to push forward. She knew this was a process of becoming stronger but did it really have to be so high up, and on top of this Natalia had be suffering strange symptoms similar to that of the flue. Natalia continued to fight her way up the path, so much so that her mind began to lose focus on a lot her control causing a light snowfall to begin.

A waterfall was beginning to come into view and Natalia was still trudging along feeling completely sick, her sense of direction was starting to be thrown off by her severe Acrophobia, she had no idea how she was going to continue with the examination before her. Eventually a person came into view under the water fall before her, she must have been the ace assigned to take care of Natalia's  examination. Natalia wanted to call out and say hello but she found herself trying to hold in mouth full of bile, she didn't want to defile the holy ground of Blue Pegasus.

Natalia heard about the healing powers of Helicon and was already stumbling over to the water eventually stumbling and falling in face first without any premeditated warning, moments later she would return to the surface floating around face up. She finally felt good enough to actually speak words and it seemingly solved the problems with her other sickness as well. "I didn't know we could do this." Natalia said as she floated around in the water letting it work its magic.

"So what are we doing today?" Natalia asked trying to be friendly only to sound a little sad in tone. She seemed to have completely lulled off of reason why she was here in the first place, why she had undertook up such a painful journey in the first place. At this point all she cared about was the relaxation of the pool, she hadn't felt well for quite some time apparently and it seemed as though she was high on the moment.

Natalia continued to float around the pool for a little longer while watching a snowflake float down to land on her nose. She frowned, she didn't want to have to deal with her fears but she was even more distressed that they decided to force her onto a floating island as part of the test. "That's not fare you could have told me that was part of the test." Natalia said a little disappointed, as she started to swim her way to the edge of the pool. She didn't even know if she would be mentally prepared for this just by resting in a pool of water.

Natalia watched as the bells flew away into the distance till she could no longer grasp their location through sight alone. Listening closely to her task she was almost immediately off in search of the first bell. She could barely hear them now, she needed to find them before she couldn't hear them at all but she had no idea how fast they were going.

It had been quite a while since she left the spring and she was starting to feel a little exhausted. "Maybe I should have worn hiking boots." Natalia said thinking out loud, at this point her fever was already returning and she felt slightly dizzy. Natalia stopped and sat down for a moment to rest. "Damn it's already coming back, guess that water will only work for so long huh." She said thinking out loud again, she knew it was going to be rather troublesome to keep her fever down long enough for her to complete her exam, maybe she will have to visit the spring after she finds a bell. She shook her head almost instantly at the thought, she couldn't go back until her exam was complete it would make her seem weak and she didn't want to seem weak in front of such a high ranking member of the guild.

After getting back up an taking a moment to listen for the bells again she opened her eyes in sudden surprise, one of the bells was very clear as if she was almost on top of it. She continued in the direction of the sound it becoming more and more clear until she came to the islands edge. She frowned for a moment edging as close as she could to the edge taking a quick peek over the edge, at that moment she jerk backwards in a flash sweat, how could she possibly continue forward if her fear of heights triggered such a reaction. She laid there for a good long while when she made the realization, Sango had said something about facing her fears. She clenched her fist in anger, so this is what she meant, forcing her into several situations where she would die if her fears acted up too much. She had no idea how she would reach a bell that was no where to be seen and she had no way forward and with the edge of the island.

Staring up at the sky listening to how close the bell was and wonder how the birds that flew by could stand being so high up. Suddenly a small block of rock floated passed her field of vision and on it a small bell ringing, waiting for Natalia to ring it. Sitting up she turned her hair to watch were this block of rock was moving to, there was no way she could possibly reach it nor could she hit it with a spell or her bow from her current location. She sat there and thought as the stone seemed to reverse direction and floated passed her view again. Scanning her surroundings she trying to find the location where she could hit the block from where she noticed a small stone extension jutting out from the island and it could get her closer to the block but the extension had a rather poor amount of foot space, she would have to balance herself perfectly if she were to attempt that method.

Natalia stood up after a long moment of pondering, she was going to have to get this done and over with, she just hoped that she could balance on the thin ledge well enough to not fall into the ocean below. She took her first step onto the ledge and she was already starting to feel her Acrophobia work up. She took the bow off her back and set an arrow ready to draw and fire, if she was going to balance while firing she might as well start before she got to the end. Moments later she found herself as close to the end as she could be feeling very dizzy and almost ready to pass out. She drew the bow back and attempted to aim when at that exact moment her footing was lost. Losing her balance she fired the bow and fell only to be caught by a fluffy cloud floating by, as if it were magic. She looked up to where she fired her arrow to see the bell already making its journey back to its original starting point. She had somehow succeeded in her task from sheer luck, and was saved from falling. It came to her realization that being afraid of heights was a little irrational, especially in a place sacred to her own guild, a guild that would risk their own dying over something so trivial.

Natalia stumbled about the island once again searching for a bell, she was still slightly dizzy from Acrophobia but the effects seemed to be slightly less severe and as such she ran into a few trees. Speaking of trees the foliage seemed to have been getting thicker and thicker as she progressed as well as the strong sound a small bell. Eventually she came to a clearing with a strange fox and behold around its neck was a small ringing bell. The fox didn't seem to be afraid of her nor did it seem hostile as she approached and bent down in front of it. ""Hello, who might you be?" She asked as if she were expecting a wild animal to respond. "Your fear is what holds this away from you." The fox seemed to speak backing away from Natalia. Natalia stood shocked at the wild animal who had spoken but not only that the atmosphere seemed to change completely till everything but her and the fox was grey and white. Concerned for her safety Natalia reached for her bow but it had seemly vanished into thin air. "What have you done?" She asked with clear fright in her voice. "You will face your fears before you may ring this bell." The fox spoke ignoring Natalia's question. Without a moments notice something began to materialize before her, something rather large and black. Before her a monstrous spider had materialized prompting Natalia to cry out and begin running. The spider barely moved as thousands of tiny spiders began to crawl out from beneath it and chase Natalia.

"Why do you always run?" A voice echoed through Natalia's head as if as trying to tell her something she should remember. "Spiders have nothing against you, why do you always run? They fear you more than you fear them." Natalia screamed as if her psych was falling apart. "Get out of my head." "If only you could allow me to leave, forcefully leaving would be more harm than good." Natalia started to feel herself stop shuddering as if a second presence was reassuring her that everything was alright. "What are you?" She asked this second presence. "I am one with you someone you have had for a very long time, but every time I call out you never respond. I could leave but you do not have the power to open the door just yet. Just know that I will protect you, for every one of your fears." As the voice drifted off into nothingness Natalia seemed to emit and extremely cold ice like aura, and the area around her began to freeze over, every last spider and ended just short of the fox. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can not forget my fears, but that's what makes me human, a just have to believe I can withstand them." She said as if she was a completely different person. Turning towards the fox she started to take light steps towards it as the spiders began to disappear before her. "I'm going to need that bell, and I would rather not have to take it by force." She towered over the fox as it simply just sat down. "I see, so fear is something that you can not rid yourself of but something you have to stand against, very well you may have the bell." The fox said as the bell dropped from its neck and it turned tail and ran. "So she has finally reached the girls ears." The fox muttered to itself before vanishing without a trace. Natalia frowned, as the area returned to what is used to be albeit with a bit of frost bight. She picked up the bell and shook it to make it ring sending it on it's journey back to the springs.

Natalia stumbled down into the depths of Mount Helicon as the temperature was rising quite a bit, Natalia wasn't quite sure she would be able to endure the final part of the exam with her condition in the heat. There was steam everywhere leading to the hypothesis that Natalia was progressing towards the geysers that fed the springs of mount Helicon, they had the same sort of feel about them except less like healing. Eventually Natalia found herself in a chamber with what indeed were many geysers, and before her was a figure lost in the steam that she couldn't quite make out, and in the center of the chamber a bell ringing quite loudly to announce its presence to Natalia over the noise of a geyser going off.

Natalia stared at the tall broad figure before her, she didn't expect the guild master to be present during her exam causing her to attempt to explain but only manage an incoherent stutter that sounded more like a squeak. And then the unthinkable happened as he reached up and grabbed her chest causing her eyes to open wide like they we about to pop out. "Oh, Natalia what are you doing here?" He asked groping her a little more. After a long awkward pause Shuhei would find Natalia cold hand making contact with his left cheek fallowed by an ear shattering screech. "PERVERT!" Natalia screamed covering her chest. Just then she started to feel a little dizzy as the heat started to get to her.

Shuhei spun around several times and landed face down in the dirt again upon being slapped excruciatingly hard. "Did I mention I was blind?" Shuhei said apologetically as he chuckled lightly and got back up to his feet as a geyser erupted near them, generating a great amount of steam that wafted past them with intense heat. "This is area is becoming pretty unstable, we need to get out of here." Unbeknownst to Shuhei, he was facing away from Natalia as he spoke to her in a serious tone, despite the awkwardness of what had just happened.

Though Shuhei could only hear the sizzling Geysers, the feint sound of a bell rang clear to Natalia's ear. "Alright alright, I'm sorry, but we really do need to get out of here." Shuhei mentioned, ignorant of Natalia's current situation. Visible at the far end of the chamber, was a bell, hovering gently in the air. Though it disappeared within a torrent of boiling water that rose from the earth. Not only that, but before them was a chamber filled with hot geysers like the one that enveloped the bell. For Natalia, grabbing the bell before the Geyser consumed her would be impossible. However for the fastest man in Fiore, such a task would be simple, had he not lost his vision... Navigating through the Geysers would be an impossible task for the blind. Suddenly the task before Natalia became clear. She had to guide Shuhei through the Geysers to the bell, and command him at precisely the right moment to snatch the bell out of the air.

Natalia raised an eyebrow as Shuhei spoke to thin air about leaving."I'm behind you."She said slightly unimpressed. "I can't leave yet." Natalia said in a frightful tone, she needed to complete the task at hand and it was clear she wouldn't be capable of completing it by herself. "Sango said to collect bells and I haven't completed that yet, the last one is on the other side of the chamber. She said in a massively panicked voice, she didn't exactly feel safe asking the guild master for assistance but in this situation she didn't really have a choice. "Uh... could you maybe... help me?" She said with a slight stutter clearly understanding that he couldn't see and that she would have to guide him through the geyser field, something she knew she would dread and in her current state she might just pass out in the middle of the task.

"I uh..." Natalia was speechless at what just transpired, had Shuhei been one step further he would have suffered severe burns from the hot geyser. She was already buckling under the pressure and she hadn't even began not to mention that she was starting to feel the effects of the heat. Once again a voice echoed in her head as things seemed rather dire. "You know you can't last here, you need to finish this quickly, let me be your eyes and give you what you need to know." It said, this time Natalia didn't freak out like she did last time, the presence in her mind felt almost warm but was cold at the same time. Her vision seemingly cleared as the presence took over, most of the steam seemed to clear out of her vision and she started to calm herself awaiting what to do next. "you can begin by backing up several steps." She said as she began to order Shuhei into a position where she could actually make safe orders. "There is a geyser directly in front of you if you step to the right by 5 wide steps you will end up beside another but the path in front will be clear." She made an order as she began to calculate how she was going to handle this, there was no direct path to bell nor was there a clear path however there were brief moments where the geysers stop leaving an opening to jump over to another path. "The path is dangerous but if we time this correctly then it shouldn't be much of an issue." She said to prepare Shuhei for what was about to transpire.

Natalia observed the flow of the geysers with the eyes of a hawk, making note of every interval and the distance between each geyser, eventually she found the perfect timing. "Natalia calm down you're too excited." Said the voice in her head as to try and get her to re-evaluate her decision, she simply shrugged it off as nothing just a concern. As the geysers continued their pattern she made a rather quite shout for Shuhei to go. "Go now run about 10 steps forward then jump the bell will be directly in front of you!" Just as she finished saying that the ground in front of Shuhei began to crack, the signs of a freshly created geyser in the making, if he were to run at that point in time it would just barely nick him on his 5th step. "You fool, you knew you would make a mistake in your calculations." The voice said berrating Natalia for her error in judgment.

Natalia stared at the scene before her, it was as if she had never moved an inch since the exam had begun. She was standing at the lake in the exact spot that the bells were first rung before she set out on her tasks, so did that mean that everything she had bore witness to and endured was all a lie. She screamed out in anger not sure what to believe before breaking down crying tears streaming from her face. She had just endured several harsh trials, it was hard to tell if she was crying out of anger or joy that this was all over. After taking a moment to rest herself and recovering from the returning migraine she had developed she eventually turned to return to the ship, she was tired of being here, she just wanted to go home now and sleep, and so she set out on her journey home.