Chapter Text
In Happy's defense, he didn't think they'd be kicked off the ship this soon.
Maybe he probably shouldn't have snuck his way into the kitchen, because he really should have known that five(ish) minutes was enough time for his companion to locate the engine room. Because of course it was using a magic T-something model that could break after a little bit of fiddling.
It turns out the pirates did not take kindly to two stowaways wrecking their engine and kitchen. But at least the salmon was good. Walking the plank, not so much.
At least the pirates realized too late that Happy was a flying talking blue cat that was perfectly capable of pilfering one of their tiny boats. And so here they were a few hours later, stranded on a near shore boat in the middle of the ocean, with Captain Bushybeard probably still screaming various ways he would skewer them if he ever saw them again.
Happy sighed. Between that and using his wings to try to pull the boat in (hopefully) the right direction, he was exhausted. And growing talking blue cats needed to be well fed, so he did what growing talking blue cats did when hungry.
Whine shamelessly. "Zeref! Do you got any fish?!"
For the first time in hours, his companion took his nose off the map. Looked around. Then went back to the map. "There's plenty of fish around."
"That's not what I meant!" The teen gave no response, already exceeding his talk quota for this reading session. Happy flopped on his back, gave a sigh that hopefully even the guild could hear, and waited for his stomach to eventually groan its way into oblivion. So much for ‘a quick detour’.
And honestly, when was it ever? Just before Hargeon, they had taken a detour to the Magic Library. Honestly, a big mistake, since some dark guild had picked that day to raid the place. And were interested in the same research notes they were going to borrow. It took a week to shake them off.
Happy heard the shuffling of paper and the rocking of the boat. All the best indicators of giving a cat his well earned attention time. He immediately stood up and -
"Zeref!" Needless to say, he was still fixated on the map. Even worse, Zeref changed his reading position to hanging over the side of the boat like a over one-hundred-pound rag with no idea what capsize meant. And had also brought their definitely not waterproof map with him.
It was instances like this where Happy reminded himself why he always reserved enough magic for an emergency flight.
One emergency rescue later, Happy decided enough was enough. He had the map now, and there was no way he was giving it back. "I don't think we're going to find it Zeref. So let's just - ah!" Happy had to stop him from leaning over the boat again.
Of all things, not trying to go overboard was the thing that got a reaction. "Happy. Let me check the water." Happy would not deny he took a little bit of glee pretending to ignore that. “Something’s wrong with the ethernano.”
Happy was no expert on ether, but he had ears. And plenty of time traveling with someone who actually knows how the stuff moved to pick up a few fragments. And the one thing he knew was that when something was wrong with ethernano, it meant to prep his wings to get out of there fast (he should really start storing enough magic for two emergency flights). “What’s wrong?”
Zeref pointed at the tiny paws gripping his clothes. Happy stuck out his tongue. “Fair enough. Try to feel for the ether.”
On good days, all Happy could ever get was small. The light brush in his wings that would guide him higher. The tiny sparks from a too close spell that made his fur stand on end. The guild during its roudiest fistfights, where from the rafters he could tell there was something else alive dancing in glee with the punching and shouting.
But after nearly exhausting his own magic, where nothing happened and all he could see was the overbearingly blue ocean? No, it was not one of those days. “I got nothing.”
To Happy’s surprise, Zeref nodded. “Exactly. We should be close. So there should be an ethernano stream. But there are no readings so far.” He reached into the satchel and pulled out a pen and book Happy was certain had nothing to do with ether. “In fact, there are no ether readings in general. I don’t think anything’s coming from the water, which means-”
Happy turned the page before the teen could write over the diagram of Dragon Wars Era linguistic patterns (Levy would never let them borrow another book again if that happened). “Oh. Right.” He swapped it out for a journal on ether research. “If the ocean has no ether, then either we are in a completely dead spot and will eventually perish from magic decay, or there is something interfering with any magic readings.”
“I would prefer the latter.” Happy did not panic. He couldn’t afford to panic, because panicking would involve shouting, and shouting might make his wings pop out, and then he’s going to die from no magic and then his dead body’s going to fall over in the next capsize attempt. So Happy did not panic, because not thinking about the worst and least likely thing to happen was a much better coping mechanism.
Zeref paused his scribbling. “Probably the former.” The scribbling resumed.
Happy calmly reminded himself that screaming would not help. Sure, he shouldn’t have lost Zeref in Haragon in the first place. Because then he wouldn’t have wandered into that magic shop and subsequently broke his record for how fast to get permabanned. And then if they didn’t have to stick around to forward the damage bill (he could almost hear Master pleading for retirement already), they wouldn’t have overheard that rumor. And then they wouldn’t have snuck onto a pirate ship to get close enough to an unknown island off in the middle of nowhere that’s apparently close enough to a giant deadly no magic zone!
He felt the entire boat lurch forward (he did not scream). Not again! But when he looked up, he could see that Zeref hadn’t strayed from the boat center, maybe even curled up a bit tighter as if his note’s quality was proportional to how close he could put his face to the page. The once calm ocean, however, roared with the darkening sky. Hill after hill of water began pushing against the boat, as if some beast was beating them back, preventing them from going …
Oh.
“Etherstream readings are back. And unusually active. It must have been the latter then. But what was the blocker then?” Happy tugged on the cloth and pointed ahead. “Oh. I guess we found it.”
There it stood, snared in a corpse of thorns and guarded by the crashing waves. Great rocks sharp as a lightning strike impaled its center. And propping itself above its damaged core rose a tree, a mess of frail branches knotted together that somehow twisted itself taller than any mountain. Yet the branches barely managed to lift an entirely separate island high above where the earth may never hold. And all around the ether whispered trespassers .
Happy decided it was a lost cause. “Aye.” They were going to end up destroying an entire landmass, weren’t they?
