Taking a Stand in the Sand ♢ Solo

Althea ventured deeper into the vast desert, squinting at the horizon for anything suspicious.  She wasn’t wearing anything for protection against the intense sunlight besides a white sundress and matching floppy sun hat, the ribbon she usually tied in her hair used on it instead.  Despite being directly in the Sun’s harsh rays, the slayer wasn’t actually too bothered.  Due to her magic, she constantly had a great amount of water all over her bodily systems that kept her hydrated without much effort.  Anyways, her journey through Desierto desert was very different than her last one, a time when she still utilized blizzard magic.  There really was a stark contrast between water and ice magic, although they’re closely related to each other.  Althea had literally felt like she was walking through a furnace before, but now she didn’t need any special preparations to cross a desert.  The sunhat was only to shield her eyes so that surveying the sands was easier, doing very little for her exposed skin. That particular accessory could probably fend off the gentle sunlight back in Magnolia, but Desierto was a whole other story.  Really, it was just made for fashion and eye-shielding, which Althea was fine with.  Again, there was no need for protection in the first place.

But the reason the girl was in Desierto in the first place not to test her capabilities in the heat but to complete a job, although challenging herself might’ve influenced her decision to some degree.  She was meant to be finding and taking down the thing capturing travelers in the desert, many having disappeared due to the disturbance.  The time of disappearances ranged from about two months ago to just that week, although they all were thought to be connected.  After all, that many people don’t just disappear for no reason at all in such a small time frame.  Although Althea -- and even the people paying for her to do the job -- weren’t exactly sure that that thing really was, the girl decided to just look for anything that appeared to be relatively suspicious.  Or literally anyone at all since most traveled around Desierto’s sands, not through them.  And not too many people lived in such a place, the exceptions being those on the outskirts.  But there probably a few people just off in the wild, similar to how Althea lived during the majority of her life.  While in those snow-capped peaks near Mountain Village, she was pretty sure she wasn’t registered anywhere besides being a citizen of Fiore.  Having to straighten everything out when she was travelling to Fairy Tail was such a headache, so she just skipped out on the ones that wouldn’t get her a passport.  She couldn’t help but wonder if she should’ve just filled out the paperwork...

Anyways, the daunting goal of the job didn’t really seem to discourage Althea.  The people’s families were worried sick and who knows what actually happened to them.  They may be dead, deserted, or out of water, so there wasn’t any time to waste worrying.  Taking the canteen attached to her through a rudimentary sling, she was about to take a quick swig when the slayer noticed something.  She had somehow run out.  Peeked into the canteen to double check the fact, a slightly concerned expression slowly krept onto her features.  But, she quickly was able to brush the unsure emotions off.  Sure, it was pretty bad news since water was the only thing between her and drying up like a prune, but that just meant that she’d need to speed up the process of finding the missing travelers.  Althea threw the useless jug into the sands before taking in the scents around her, not to much avail.  But she kind of figured that would happen since the girl had attempted that exact thing before proceeding to just wander around aimlessly.  She shrugged, deciding that running would probably have about the same effect as walking around.  It would be “quicker” too.  If whatever she was looking for was right in front of her for example, she would never know unless she was going faster than it.  Either way, the water mage thought herself to be a rather quick one for someone at her level of skill, so running would probably be way better than walking.

But not too long after beginning her frivolous trek, Althea began feeling a bit dehydrated.  All of her fluids were going to protecting her from the Sun, not making sure -- you know -- that she could function at all.  So her once speedy run began deteriorating over time, at some point slowing to a point of a fast jog and than an tiresome trek.  By then, the slayer literally felt like she would die, reminding her of how she felt her last time in Desierto.  She was bent over, dragging her feet along and looking like the average out of breath person with arms held straight down and plenty of panting.  Darn my poor forethought, maybe I should’ve just worn normal desert travelling clothes and not have relied on my magic…  She thought, although she didn’t necessarily regret anything.  I mean, if you’re going to die at least be alright with yourself before doing so.  Eventually coming to a stop, the girl took a deep breath before simply falling flat on her face.  At that point, she completely welcomed death and probably would’ve died if one name hadn’t popped up into her mind: Rhosyn.

Sighing at her own idiocy, Althea struggled slowly to get to her feet, eventually doing so.  Even if she should have no regrets before dying, that didn’t mean she would go down without a fight.  She hadn’t done everything she had wanted to yet, so there was no need to stop her journey yet.  And who ever heard of someone dying because they simply didn’t wear the proper clothing they were meant to?  Taking off her sunhat and halding so that having it fly off and losing her ribbon wasn’t a problem, she took off at an even faster speed than before.

Even Althea wasn’t exactly how long she had been moving for, it all came to a sudden stop when a leg gaze into exhaustion, refusing to move an inch.  As a result, her face became friends with the ground for the second time in a day, although this time she wasn’t conscious at all.


Althea woke with a trickle of water drizzling onto her, eyes opening at the touch of the precious resource.  “A-Are you quite alright?”  A high pitched voice said, causing the wizard to rub her eyes to quickly identify the speaker.  Her gaze was blurry and unfocused, probably because of dehydration.  After that, all she could make out were three humanoid blurs looming over her.  Recognizing that her sight was probably impaired, one of the figures placed a cool bowl of water into the wizard’s palm.  Recognizing it immediately as water, Althea wasted no time sitting up and gulping that stuff down at a cartoonishly fast pace.  Now with clear and focused vision, she was able to identify her saviors.

They all obviously weren’t from Fiore since they all had dark brown wolf tails and ears, but you could never know with people.  But that was actually the only thing they all shared with each other, standing at different heights with different colored eyes.  That and the silver cuffs around their wrists and ankles.  “Y-You’re fi-finally awake!”  Said the tallest one, a young woman with silver eyes.  She also was probably the one who Althea had heard earlier due to both voices having the same stutter.  Dense, pitch-black curls fell delicately past her shoulders, although it was laced with small particles of sand.  Suddenly the shortest wolf-eared person present knocked them lightly on top her head, although they had to perform a little jump to do so.  “Shush Alabaster!  We need to get going again!  The chain between us and the others isn’t all too long.”  This one had chestnut brown hair held up in a messy bun, although whether that was intentional was unclear.  Her eyes were a fierce yellow, pupils more narrow than the others’.  Turning away from the one apparently called ‘Alabaster’, she focused her attention to Althea who was simply looking ap at the trio curiously.  “So, I’m Canary, this worry-beetle here is Alabaster, and the quiet one is Lilac.  Who are you?”  The short wolfgirl obviously didn’t seem to want to waste too much time on introductions and kept looking behind her as if checking on something.  “Well, I’m Althea!  Nice to meet you Canary, Alabaster, and Lilac, you really saved my butt.”  That was the point the wizard finally got a got look at her last savior.  She was hidden behind Alabaster, white hair reaching to her waist held in a ponytail.  “...Hi.”  She said simply, although her mouth barely moved.  Getting to her feet, she brushed any leftover sand off her dress.

But as she did so, Althea realized she wore the same chains as the trio of wolfgirls did.  Staring at her wrists and ankles, she realized an absence of shoes too.  “Erm, what happened?”  With a jolt, Althea felt her had for her floppy sun hat she had decided to tie her signature ribbon around.  “W-Where is it?”  She said, looking around their surroundings for a hint of red.  “Oh, y-your hat?  I could only get the r-ribbion off it, sorry.”  Said Alabaster, nervously revealing the girl’s precious possession.  Grabbing it in a flash, the slayer wasted no time with tying in her hair.  “Phew, I thought I lost this…”  But then the ladies began moving ahead without another word, dragging Althea along by the silver chain.  Lilac stood right in front of her after Canary and Alabaster.

“As an answer to your first question…”  Began Canary, gaze set on her front, “You were caught by Bladdi Maccoi, Scourge of the Sands and a Free Man’s Horror.  No idea what he’s going to do with us though.”  The short woman’s deep brown tail began bristling out of aggravation, fists clenched at her sides.  “What I do know is that he goes around this desert, capturing travelers and forcing them to walk as he find more.”  Canary’s rage grew to such a point that she began snarling words instead of actually speaking.  “B-But I’m sure someone w-will get us!”  Intervened Alabaster, “You’re probably from a rich family, right?  That’s why you’re out in Diestro with clothes like that!  Someone will probably notice y-you’ve disappeared and send help!”  Althea was about to correct the dark-haired wolf but then they suddenly broke into a hurried run, allowing the wizard to see small specks she identified as people in front of them.  As suddenly as they had stopped, the trio assumed their walking speed once more.

“S-Sorry for doing that without saying, A-Althea…”  Said Alabaster, slightly scrambled.  “They usually ch-chain us in groups of four with another chain linking the groups.  The whole reason we could stop was because of that… they kind of just chained you, gave us a bowl of water, and expected you to survive, you-you know?”  Having calmed down a bit, Canary rejoined the conversation, “It really is cruel you know, me and my sisters just wanted to return home…”  By now, Althea didn’t see the point in correcting them, or she simply forgot that they had assumed who she was.  Either way, she was focused on the fact that this “Bladdi Maccoi” fellow was probably the one responsible for the disappearances.  So, she simply broke apart her chains using raw strength, much to the sisters’ apparent surprise.

“A-Althea, how di-did you…?”  Said Alabaster, silver eyes wide.  “Well, I’m a wizard of course.”  She answered plainly.  As a response, Canary eyed her chains, attempting to break them apart herself.  “Huh, aren’t these anti-magic…?  Oh wait, they probably didn’t think you had any magic!  How did you manage to hide your magical presence while unconscious?”  Althea severed the girl’s own chains, thinking for a moment before answering Canary’s question.  “Probably because I was dying of dehydration!”  She chirped in an oddly cheerful tone.  “The Bladdi Maccoi guy is at the front, right?  It’s my job to beat him up.”  After Lilac silently nodded in confirmation, Althea waved to her saviours before sprinting towards the front of the line.

After no time at all, the wizard spotted her target: a grotesquely large man riding in a carriage that was most likely stolen.  Jumping into the air, she landed a divekick on the carriage, causing an explosion of sand.  Jumping out of the particles, the girl was ready for a fight.  In the corner of her eye she noticed Canary, Lilac, and Alabaster appear out of nowhere.  But then she just reckoned that one of their magical abilities included teleportation due to the eternano lingering in the air.  Refocusing her attention on the now clearing sandcloud, Althea stepped back into a fighting stance.  And after only a moment, the ugly man emerged from the sand.  “Oh?  You’re that girl we found, right?  I didn’t sense your magic though… no matter.”  He bellowed, body slowly sinking straight down into the sands.  “You won’t get in the way of my goal.”  Then, he was gone.

Slightly confused, Althea looked around for a sign of him to get none.  That is until he exploded from the earth below, punching the slayer on the side of her face.  An as soon as her had attacked, Maccoi had disappeared.  “Whoa, that isn’t too creative of you to do…”  She said, wiping away the blood that had come from the force of the surprise attack.  “But now it’s my turn…”  Jumping straight up into the air, Althea took a deep breath, gathering water in her mouth before blasting it out.  The orbs of liquid impacted the earth with a bang, the tunneling mage soon being uncovered and then impacted by two of them.  Quickly, she dove at Maccoi, an extended fist soon making contact with the middle of his face.  After that crushing hit, Althea kicked the man in the jaw before delivering a roundhouse kick to the side of his face as payback for before.  Landing neatly on the ground, she then performed an uppercut, causing Maccoi to fall onto his back.

“Okay, finished.”  Althea said, sweeping some loose pieces of hair out of her face.  “N-Not yet, girl!”  Replied the injured earth wizard, palm held out towards Alabaster, Lilac, and Canary.  But before he could fire at the wolfgirls, the slayer kicked the large man, causing him to roll away weakly.  Suddenly, a crooked smile etched on Maccoi’s face, causing Althea to leap in between he and any of the former slaves.  “Alright, you’re done now, okay?”  “Idiotic child!  Don’t you know why I’m collecting people?  Not for slavery, sacrifices!”  Before she could put two and to together, the earth mage had already fired the blast… at himself.

The skies darkened all at once, a mound of sand rising up into the air.  Stepping back into her fighting stance, Althea anticipated her next challenger, although her eyes kept drifting back to the dead corpse of the fat Maccoi.  That sand soon began take shape into a humanoid creature while darkening in color.  Soon, a djinn-like creature stood before the water mage, powerful ethernano emitting from it.  “Ah, it is good to be back here.”  It said in a deep, silky tone.  It stretched it’s prominent muscles for a moment before it seemed to finally notice Althea.  Pointing at the young girl, he could hardly hold back a chuckle.  “Are you going to fight me, girl?”  “How come everyone I meet always calls me ‘girl’?”  She suddenly said, eyes narrowed at her new opponent.  At this remark, the djinn reassessed his comment, a grin slowly coming to his dark features.  “Ah, so you aren’t a girl -- at least in the same way I thought you were.  But that doesn’t matter if you plan on fighting me for those sacrifices over there.”  He gestured towards the trio of wolfgirls, much to Althea’s distaste.  “You can’t make those guys slaves, they helped me out!”  “Then I guess you’re dying first!”  He replied, charging at the slayer while enveloped in dark magic.  Immediately she threw a disk-like object at him, one that the demon dodged easily.  Althea was punched right in the gut, the djinn sending her rolling away in the sand.  “I am Mutara of the Sands, who are you to think you can defeat me?”  “It comes back, by the way.”  At first puzzled by the statement, the djinn was then hit in the back of the head.  The slayer then got to her feet, squaring off against the djinn.  “That atack I used before… It comes back.”  Mutara’s grin was immediately wiped away, replaced by a look of fury.  His black eyes burned with the emotion, brows furrowed together.  “You’re going to die now.”  “Right back at you.”  Suddenly, Althea’s power spiked after she performed two quick buffs on herself.  But, it went even higher, dark rain clouds filling the sky.  As a response, Mutara removed the golden rings around his wrists, ones revealed to be both weights and suppressors for his magic once they were dropped into the sand.

Without another word, the two went at each other, Mutara first going for a punch aimed at Althea’s face -- one that she dodged easily.  Then, she kicked him in the right waist, great pain caused to him upon impact.  But that was the point his fate was sealed because he flinched from the blow.  Taking that time to finish things once and for all, Althea lapet at him, dealing a flurry of three punches to the demon’s chest before landing squarely on the ground and dealing the last blow: an uppercut.  The young girl stood there in front of the unmoving body of the djinn laid across the desert sands now drenched with rain water.  Not too far from him also laid the sodden corpse of Maccoi.  Despite this, Althea let out a deep sigh of relief, enjoying the rain.  “Now we’re done.”