Job: The Snowy Cottage (Solo)

It had been a while since Victoria ended her last job. She had recieved strict orders from the doctors in the night in which she appeared in the infirmary to not to get even close to perillous missions for at least a week. Back then, Victoria had muttered how there were no perillous missions for D Ranks, but the doctors didn't hear her. Damn, her objective was for them to hear her. Oh well, at least she got healed. After that, she had spent some time in the guild, talking to her nakama and getting to know a bit the new ones.
But, that time had ended. Now, she was on her way to her next mission, which was in one of the mountain villages. It wasn't a perillous missions, but Victoria had decided to take on the easy and quick to complete missions in order to get more experience in missions and be able to do her C Rank Exam, so that she could become a C rank and do one of the missions for that rank. As for what she read, they weren't as lame as the D Rank.
However, this mission was not even close to perillous. It was about helping an old guy and a boy around her age to build a cottage in those mountains for the boy's sister. She would be getting married soon, and they wanted to surprise her, yet they were too little to finish the house in time, that's why they needed a third person. And Victoria had accepted.
She laid her head on the window and began humming a song she had recently listened to. Those train rides had always bored her out. They needed too many time to arrive. It was a total waste of precious time to go somewhere in train. There were days she wished she could grow wings and just fl to the location she wanted. And it was possible, since there were people with a lineage that permitted them doing that. However, her lineage didn't. She had a Shinigami's Protecion in her blood, which gave her the right to summon a Shinigami when she is in need in a battle. She was anxious to try it out, but she couldn't.
Finally, she arrived and got out of the train and looked around. There was no snow in this place. But then again, there was a boy waiting for someone on the train station. When he saw Victoria, he smiled at her and made her a sign to come closer.

She walked to the boy, smiling. He was tall, a lot taller than her, with a pale skin that might have resulted living in a snowy mountain for too long, coal black hair and purple eyes. He stretched out a hand and introduced himself as Noah Grace, son of the person who put the job request. Victoria shook his arm, Introducing herself as well. Noah found it really ironic that Victoria was an Ice Mage and she came on this mission, yet she couldn't use magic. Victoria almost fell on that one, but then she regained her position and looked at him, pulling a mask of not caring about it. He told her that they'd reach the place where his father awaits for him in a carriage and that they'll start working without losing any precious time. According to what he said, his sister's wedding is in three days. At that, Victoria had thought that, naturally, they had chosen the closest date to the wedding to make the house. It was a bit ridiculous, starting to construct ahouse that would be the present for the couple just three days before the wedding, but she shut her mouth on that one. The last thing she needed was to tell the guys this and be kicked out after coming this far. She pulled her jacket a bit closer to her body, which was a natural reaction of her body towards the growing cold. She has always liked the ice and the snow, naturally, bit this cold air was absolutely horrendous. Who in the name of Fairy Tail would want to live here?
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, they arrived near a middle aged man that was waiting for them. Noah helped Victoria get down and they walked to the man.
''Good Evening, Miss. I am Maven Grace. I see you have already met my son Noah, and I really hope he has explained to you what this is all about. If you don't have anything against, let's get straight to working.'' The man stretched out a hand and Victoria shook it.
'' I am Victoria Hunter. Pleased to meet you, Mr Grace. Now, off to work.''

Maven had pointed out some blueprints he and his son had designed a few months ago and had finished just yesterday. Noah explained to her that his father is a experienced architet and had given it all he had in while doing those blueprints. And now it was only left to build the house. Victoria inspected the blueprints with unhidden interest while humming a song called ''Snow Fairy'' that her guildmates believed to be dedicated to Fairy Tail, which is actually something she believed as well. Noah listened to her and laughed slightly.
'' Do I sing That bad?'' She asked, raising an eyebrow.
'' No! Don't get me wrong. I mean, you're an Ice Mage, we're in the middle of the snowy mountains and you're singing a song about a snow fairy. Everything is related with snow or ice.'' Victoria relaxed a bit and glanced at the blueprints for the last time, then returned her gaze at Noah.
He instructed her over to the wood and told her that they should start by putting the wood in place, since the falsework was already done. Maven explained to Victoria that after the house is finished, he'll use some kind of method to isolate the wood from cold and wetness, but this wouldn't involve Victoria's help. She didn't really understand the method he was talking to her about, but she really didn't care. All she needed was to complete the mission.

This job was more funny than Victoria had originally thought. Ocassionally, she would recieve a snowball in the face and would turn around to see a laughing Noah. She would return him the favour and start a fight, which ended at the moment, since Victoria's mind couldn't wave away the job for too long. A few hours had passed and the weather was getting colder and colder. Somewhere around nine p.m., the group settled around a small fire and had dinner, although the Ice Mage stood as far away from the fire as she could. She ate very little and continued her work, placing some more wood on the falsework. It was rather easy, truth to be told. Once you get into it, it can also end up being really fun. It was all just placing the wood on the falsweork. After an hour, Noah and Maven joined her, and, soon, they had finished putting up most of the wood on the falsework. Noah and Mavin had settled two tents. The two family members would sleep in one and Victoria would sleep in the other. When she entered her tenth, she layed down and almost instantly fell asleep, which was something surprising, considerating that Victoria was never able to fall asleep easily and often had insomnia.
The next morning, Noah woke her up really early and the group went on eith their job on constructing the house. Noah recieved a letter that he had to go downtown for something, so he left his father and the young mage working hard. Victoria was finishing up with putting wood on the falsework , which meant that the group was going rather well, even though there were still a lot of things to do. Soon, Noah came back, pulling some furniture fore the house and some bricks. He entered the house and invited Victoria to help him build a fireplace. She handed him the bricks while he put them on quickly. Soon, he had to go up to the halfway built roof, followed by Victoria, who decided to help Maven with the roof. They calculated the place the chimney would occupy and left that place without building anything on it and finished off the roof. They didn't stop even to get lunch, and barely remembered for dinner. All of them seemed to be on their nerves since tomorrow was the last day and they still had a flaming hell of a lot to do.

After their small dinner, Victoria, Noah and Maven reunited so they could make a plan for tomorrow. Maven held out a list of the things left to do and a pen and began writing a letter beside each thing to do. He glanced at Noah and Victoria and returned to writing, then stood thoughtful for a second before begining to write again. After fifteen minutes, her turned to the two members and looked at their eyes.
'' Very well. As you two possibly know, for tomorrow we have a lot of work and the job must be done tomorrow. Ah, this reminds me. Miss Hunter, I wanted to ask you to stay with us until the bride sees the house. If she says she likes it, well then, the paiment will be all yours. If not, then we'll see.'' Victoria froze in her seat. Damn it. So all of the effort she threw could come down by the ''I don't like this'' of the bride? Well, she has it clear if that's the thing. Victoria could already begin saying goodbye to the reward. ''However, I have distribuated the work for tomorrow. We have to connect the electricity, recieve the rest of the furniture, build it, and place it. We have to do the mix that will isolate the walls from cold and water and apply it and we have to finish the chimney. To add to that, we must build some stairs to the second floor and then clean up the house and the icicles outside. We have a lot of work.''
''I'm sure we're gonna do it on time, dad. And I'm sure Lena will love the house. You designed it by her likings. You've been listening for her babling for a month just to do this. We can't fail now.'' Nathan encouraged with a bright smile. '' I suggest we get a little sleep and we wake up extra early tomorrow morning. After all, we need sleep or we'll be as good as a bunch of Vulcans finishing whatever we're doing.'' Mavel sent his son a smile full of gratitude and looked back at his list of things to do.
'' Well. Noah, you're getting in charge to get the furniture here and then you're going to do the mix against cold and water as I showed you. Victoria, you will build and place the furniture and make the stairs, then clear the house and Icicles. I'm going to connect the electricity and finish up the chimney. If you finish everything, go and help someone else. Now that this is cleared up, off to bed. I'll wake you two up early. Good night.''
Victoria and Noah said their goodbye to Maven and walked to their respective tents, sleepy. That had been a really hard day of work.

Victoria didn't get to sleep that night. The phenomena from the day before had went away and she had went insomniac once again. She had spent the whole night just spinning around in her tent, occasionaly humming silently just out of boredom or cursing the insomnia and its whole family. When the first sun rays finally came, she shot out of the tent and went straight to where Maven. He greeted her nerviously and handed her a piece of paper with the things she has to do. Stairs, furniture, clenaning, icicles and that was all. She first went for the stairs she had to build from the house's entrance to the path. She took some wood and began working on it, while Maven woke Noah up and made him go after the furniture immediately. The poor boy groaned silently, but took the carriage and hurried down the path. Victoria worked hard and quick in the meantime, preparing the pieces and taking care of imperfections. Maven had began installing the electricity system, all concentrated and silent. After one or two hours, Noah returned, pulling a big whole of furniture. He left it to Victoria and went straight to prepare the mix that Maven told him to. Meanwhile, the Ice Mage finished off with the stairs and put them in their place without a word. She looked at her creation from all possible angles and through every prespective, and she decided they looked good and well placed. After that, she took a broom and began cleaning the house, although it was going to get dirty after she placed the furniture. Oh well, then she would simply clean it again. It was pretty dirty, but hey, it was recently built. What do you want? As expected, cleaning it only took her an hour. After that, she took the furniture and began opening and reading instructions that literally didn't serve for anything, her mind tired and ina need of sleep. She sat down for a moment and brushed her head against her hand, trying to recover her straight thinking. She got up, a bit dizzy, but walked back to her job and continued reading without even saying a word. In the meantime, Maven had finished installing the electric system, while Noah was still trying to make the strange mix his father told him to.

Surprisingly, there was a lot of furniture to build. A big sofa, two armchairs, a table, not to mention all of the cooking supplies and the bedroom. She began by making the two armchairs, followed by the sofa. She already placed them in the house, on the new carpet. She placed it next to the wall, facing the fireplace. After that, she put the table in front of the sofa. She put the armchairs on the two sides of the table, opposite eachother and put on a beautiful vase. She'd fill them with flowers last. Then, she moved on to putting some of Lena's favourite paintings on the walls and some flowers in the corners. Soon, Noah had finished the mix and came to help her with the kitchen while Maven was finishing off with the chimney upstairs. Together, they made a great team and worked really fast. Noah had put on all of the kitchen furniture and was building it quickly on one part f the kitchen, while Victoria was on the other. In the end, they managed to finish it halfway up for four hours, yet, the tension was not going down. It was already in the afternoon and they still had to do the bedroom, clean up again and remove the damned icicles. Noah had to go and find stairs so that Victoria could climb them and finish up drawers and other things that were high on the walls. That took them around two hours, and now they were really nervous about the time. After what seemed to be half of an hour after finishing up the drawers, they had finished the kitchen.
'' I'm gonna go out and take out all of the icicles while it's still early. In the night it might be perillous.'' Victoria told Noah. '' Start the bedroom without me. I'm gonna join you in half of an hour, approx.''
Noah nodded and the ice mage went out, a stick in hand.

The air outside was rather cold, as if it was unwilling to helpp the Ice Mage in her duty. She stepped a few steps away and began poking slightly and cauteously one of the icicles. It fall easily, making Victoria to jump away in fear that it might actually hit her. It broke on the ground, sending a few innofensive (let's hope) shards away. They fell and sank in the soft, white snow, while Victoria moved on the next one. This was easy, she could say, but she had to be quick. She couldn't leave Noah alone, doing the whole work. The icicles began falling one after another, making Victoria smile. She made sure Maven wasn't around so he wouldn't get hit by the icicles and, so he wouldn't see her. She summoned a little fox to make her company, and felt better as she felt the magic flow through her body. The little animal sat down and watched its master curiously, head twitched to one side, amused and curious expression. Victoria just laughed at the little fox and continued her work, although the little animal just kept wandering in her feet, praying her for attention.
'' Hey. I summoned you to make me company, not distract me. Stay still now.'' She crouched and pet the little fox's head. Although truly those creatures dissapeared after no more than a few minutes, she loved them as if they were her true pets and would summon them just to have fun and cuddle with them.
But them, without Victoria even noticing, a icicle fell unawaitedly and it was going to hit her head. She only noticed when the fox hissed and escaped. She looked up and had to bite her tongue to avoid screaming.

The member 'IzzyxD' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Block Dice' :

Victoria threw herself on the ground and extended her arms quickly, creating an ice shield. The icicle smashed on the shield. Victoria was breathing heavily, trying her best not to shiver. What a close call, for god's sake. If the fox hadn't reacted on time, and she herself as well, by now she'd just be a red stain in the snow. That though made her shiver now. She slowly took away the shield and got up, putting a hand on her head, and regaining her heart's normal beat. The little fox's head was looking at her, scared. Victoria shook her head and hugged the little creature, calming it down. She then got up, remembering about the work she had to do. She took the stick from earlier and began poking the icicles again, slowly finishing her job. Soon after the last icicle had fallen, she ran to the bedroom and looked around. Noah was finishing up the bed, and, as soon as she walked in, he told her to take the bed covers and put them on. While she was doing that, he began building the wardrobe and putting the lamp. At least three hours after that, it was finished. Outside, it was getting dark. Victoria took the broom and cleaned the house, while Noah and Maven applied the strange mix on the walls of the cottage. Soon after that, they joined her and looked around. Everything was perfect and done. They sighed in exhaustion and relief, knowing that now ther only thing left was for the bride to see her new house.
''You will wait here until the bride comes, Miss Hunter. But, that apart, I thank toy for the effort you put in helping me in building this thing. I sincerely don't know how me and Noah could have managed it without your help.'' Maven said.
'' No need to thank me, Mr. Grace. It was a pleasure to help you.'' She smiled and got up. She said she was going to go back to the tent and get some sleep, which was actually the thing she did.
It was a bit of a cold night outside, but the Ice Mage didn't care. She entered in her tent and found the little fox sleeping on her pillow. She moved it a bit and layed down, hugging the creature tightly as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, nobody woke Victoria up early. She got up somewhere after nine a.m. and stretched out. She got up and walked out to see nobody. Even the little fox had dissapeared. She got up and undid the tent, something that Maven and Noah had done with theirs long before she was up. She combed her hair with a brush she had taken with her and looked around. Nobody. She huffed in amusement and sat behind the house, taking some snow and building a snowman. She put him some little round rocks for eyes and an icicle from the ones she threw down yesterday as a nose. Truth to be told, she had created a really fun looking snowman, so she left him in his place as a present for the new couple. She wrote in the snow a '' Congratulations'' and walked in front of the house. She sat on the stairs and began waiting for the couple and the family to arrive. Hours passed and passed and nobody showed up. At one point, Victoria was falling asleep, but the cold around her woke her up. She would occasionaly throw ice balls at the trees to test her accquaracy, or possibly run around to practice a bit. The ''Snow Fairy'' song she had sang a few days ago never left her mouth, though. She didn't shut up for the whole godly day!
After some time, the clock marked two a.m. exactly. Victoria was tired of waiting. She huffed in amusement and looked at the night sky and the little constelations. Since there were no lights around, she could see them clearly. However, her calmness was interrupted by a carriage sound. She looked to the right and saw Noah, Maven and a girl in a white dress and a boy in a suit approach the house, happy faces. She quickly got up and smiled.
''Congratulations'' She said as she stretched out an arm to the bride and her husband. The couple smiled at her and thanked her, making their way into the house. She could hear the bride's gasps and words of atonishment, of how the house was beautiful and how everything was perfect. After an hour, Maven got out of the house and handed her the reward.
'' Good work, Miss Hunter.'' He said and told her a goodbye. Noah took her to the train station and she hopped on a night ride, saying goodbye to the boy.
On the ride back to home, she just looked at the sky and wondered what her guildmates are doing right now and how many fights they had originated in the days she was gone. That thought made her smile. Oh, how great she felt.