7Natsu had been unconscious for about an hour now. Happy and Carla were sharing a chair right by his bedside. Every so often Happy would mumble Natsu's name and fidget.
"I'm really worried Carla. I don't know what to do for him…" Happy said with tears in his eyes.
"Yeah well, Wendy and Poluchka don't seem to know either," Carla said now standing up with her arms crossed. Her posture was straight and she was facing away from Happy; her nose pointing in the air.
At her words, Happy mumbled, "I-If even t-they don't know then what are w-w-we going to do? Carlaaaa!" Happy finally burst into tears as he said Carla's name. Her expression sank and she shook her head before saying, "Happy, that's not what I meant. They'll help Natus somehow. I'm sure of it and you should be too. You know how skilled Wendy and Poluchka are."
"I-I know," Happy responded sniffling. He looked down frowning. Carla glanced over at Happy from her shoulder. She let her arms fall by her side and turned towards Happy. Carla gently placed a paw on his shoulder with a sullen expression on her face.
Happy looked up at her and blubbered, "Carla!" He hugged her lower half immediately afterwards, and she just stood there for a moment. She placed a paw on his head, held him close to her and closed her eyes as she whispered, "Everything will be fine Happy."
Across the room were Wendy, Poluchka, and Lucy. They were listening to Wendy try to explain what exactly was wrong with Natsu.
"I...uh I'm not really sure what it is, but I can sense a strange and definitely foreign magic coming from him," Wendy said with her eyebrows drawn together. She fidgeted for a moment and then added, "As time goes on, the magic coming off of him seems to be getting stronger." Wendy looked over at Natsu and then back towards the group. "I don't even need to use my healing magic to sense it anymore. I just need to be somewhat near him...but I don't know what that means," she said with a dejected tone.
"Hmmm. I also noticed some weird magic coming from him, though I didn't realize it was becoming more powerful…" Poluchka said bringing a hand to her chin. She paused for a few minutes and then added, "We can assume a few things so far: first this unnatural magic is an effect of something Natsu interacted with; either on accident or by purpose, or this is the end result of a malicious curse cast by someone with a grudge; second this is advancing quickly...so we don't have much time to figure everything out. We probably have about twenty four more hours to do something for Natsu."
"But what will happen to him after that time period?" Lucy asked as she sat down with a thud on a nearby stool.
"I can't say for sure, but judging by the way things are going now...his body will most likely shut down," Poluchka responded. She turned to her medicine cabinet and began rummaging through the top drawers.
"We...we don't know anything about this magic Poluchka-san. I don't even know what spells to try to use...everything I've tried so far has just fizzled out. And-" Wendy looked down at her hands before continuing, "...this magic that's hurting Natsu just has such an evil feeling to it, that my own magic is so easily overwhelmed…" Wendy bit her lower lip and began to sniffle. "I-I just feel like I'm so use-use-" Her voice broke off as her emotions took over. Wendy's sadness came out in small stifled hiccups.
Poluchka turned around and looked at Lucy's blank stare and then Wendy's tears. She brought a heavy fist down on the counter of the medicine cabinet. Lucy and Wendy both jumped and looked at her. "I'm disappointed. The two of you hear some bad news and this is how you react?" Poluchka asked them with her voice tense. "So what if we don't know anything about this magic? Or if our own doesn't affect it? We have the time and we're going to use it to fix this," she said as she turned around to look at the girls again. Her eyes glowed with an intensity as she continued, "If it was either of you in that bed, do you honestly think Natsu would sit here and accept even for a moment the possibly of his not saving you?"
Lucy and Wendy were silent in response.
"Of course he wouldn't," Poluchka finished, now rummaging through the medicine cabinet again. Lucy clenched her teeth together and stood up. She looked over at Wendy who was wiping her eyes dry with a new determined air about her.
"You're right Poluchka-san," said Lucy.
"We're going to save Natsu-san. No matter what it takes," Wendy added in.
"We're done doing nothing," Lucy said. Poluchka smiled and turned towards them holding a large vial of clear liquid.
"Good. First I suggest you two take a few hours to gather information and decide if this is due to something he ate, or because of a curse. Don't forget to figure out what sort of magic this is as well. Return when you have as much information as possible, and we'll decide what to do next from there," Poluchka said with her tone as stern as a drill sergeant. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth slightly to add, "I almost forgot...I want you two to take this vial with you. It's a potion I made myself. All you have to do is take one sip each and you'll be able to see where Natsu has been, going back about a week or so. That should help you figure out who might have cast it, or where he picked up the malicious magic. Make sure to take small sips because each time you do, the effect will last only five minutes, and I've already attuned this potion to Natsu specifically. To have to do that again would take up too much time." Poluchka handed the rectangular vial to Lucy.
"How did you attune this to work only on Natsu?" asked Wendy.
"I put a few strands of his hair in the potion," Poluchka responded.
"O-Oh…" mumbled Lucy as she looked down at the vial in her hand with a disgusted frown. "Great…" she said under her breath.
"Of course…" Wendy whispered with a bit of exasperation as she ran a hand through her hair.
"Well what are you two waiting for? Go!" ordered Poluchka bring her open palm down on the medicine cabinet this time.
Lucy and Wendy decided to take about half an hour to gather their things together and then leave to do research and interrogate Magnolia.
