The towering trees of the Tidal Forest blocked out the sky, with only fragmented bits of sunlight leaking through the gaps in the leaves to strike the decaying foliage. Three guys, their hair matted into felt-like clumps and their clothes torn to shreds, were treading on dry branches... making their way.
Riyao carried a thick wooden stick that had been polished until it shone—straight enough to serve as a ruler. It was his 'dream stick' that he had spent ages squatting in the forest to forage. He swayed as he walked at the very front, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Junior Brother! Third Junior Brother! Master has been captured again!"
Natsu scratched his messy back of the head, the question marks on his forehead practically overflowing. "What Junior Brother? Where did this Master come from? What kind of chuunibyou nonsense are you daydreaming about now?"
Gray rolled his eyes so hard he could have seen his own brain, then tugged at his Gray hair. "Don't mind him. Riyao goes crazy like this every day. You'll get used to it."
Natsu rubbed his stomach. Suddenly, a thunderous rumble erupted from his gut. He clutched his belly, jumped up, and tilted his head back to howl, "I'm so hungr-y~"
A faint echo drifted through the forest: "Hungr-y... hungr-y..."
It had been three days since they entered the Tidal Forest. The dry rations in their backpacks had long since been devoured by Natsu, leaving not even a crumb; even the last piece of hard bread had been chewed into dust by him as a snack.
Natsu just wanted meat. After all, in the forest, Riyao could accelerate the ripening of fruit trees to replenish vitamins anytime, anywhere.
Riyao stood on tiptoes, parting the broad leaves, squinting for a long time. Unfortunately, the canopy was so dense that not even the sun could penetrate it. He scratched his head and turned to shout at Gray, "Which way was east again?"
Gray, who had been nonchalant, instantly dropped his face. He clenched his fists and rushed over, grabbing Riyao by his ragged collar. "You can't even recognize the road, yet you dare to act as the guide?!"
Riyao stiffened his neck, his reasoning weak but his attitude firm. "It's not that I don't recognize the road! It's that I can't distinguish the directions!"
Gray rolled his eyes and pointed to the left with annoyance. "That side is east. How do we proceed from here?"
Riyao lifted his little chin and patted his chest, guaranteeing, "That's right then! Just keep going forward!" As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly stiffened and scratched the back of his head. "Eh? Where's Natsu?"
Gray scanned the bushes and tree pits behind them, also bewildered. "I don't know. He was following right behind our butts just a moment ago, right?"
When children are quiet, they must be up to no good!
The two hurriedly parted the waist-high ferns and saw Natsu sprawled in the grass, clutching half a mushroom. His face was flushed like a ripe red fruit, his lips were dark blue, his belly was swollen like an inflated hot air balloon, and he was mumbling vaguely, "Delicious... give me more..." He looked like he was about to kick the bucket.
Riyao was quick-witted. He grabbed that straight wooden stick and rushed over, slamming a fist into Natsu's swollen stomach. With a "pop," the colorful black mushroom, mixed with fragments, sprayed directly out of Natsu's mouth. Taste the rainbow, eat the rainbow~
He quickly raised his hand, and a cyan Healing Magic circle "hummed" into existence in his palm. The warm light enveloped Natsu, and in less than two seconds, Natsu's complexion turned from dark blue back to a normal wheat color.
Riyao skillfully took out a rope, tied Natsu's hands and feet tightly, slung him onto that straight wooden stick, and carried him on his shoulder as if he were carrying a large wild boar that had just been hunted.
Gray came over, looked at the swaying Natsu, and his mouth twitched. "Hey, is it really okay to tie him up like this? Won't he tear us apart when he wakes up later?"
Riyao shook the wooden stick on his shoulder, and Natsu swayed along with it. He waved his hand indifferently. "It's fine, it's fine! That guy Natsu is incredibly durable! Last time he was knocked unconscious by a tree branch and woke up still able to chase a squirrel for three blocks!"
He carried the swaying straight stick, kicking acorns rolling around at his feet, and sang off-key enough to make his own mother unrecognizable, humming at the top of his lungs, "Beyond the mountains, beyond the sea, there is a group of little enemies~"
"What are you humming? Shut up!"
"Then I'll change to another one, Chi..."
Hearing this, Gray rolled his eyes so hard he could have seen his own brain. He clenched his fists and rushed over, delivering a solid Iron Mountain Shoulder strike against Riyao's arm. "Little blackie! Shut up!"
Riyao staggered from the impact. The wooden stick, which he hadn't been holding firmly, swung wildly, and Natsu, hanging from the stick, swayed like a pendulum without a tether, delivering a solid elbow strike—a fierce elbow strike to Gray.
"Ugh~" Gray instantly doubled over like a shrimp, clutching his stomach and gasping for air.
"Yo! Dare to hit me?" Riyao immediately bristled and dashed forward with the stick. Gray scrambled up, not wasting words, and chased after him, grabbing his tattered hem. "You path-finding idiot, you dare to swing the stick and hit me! Watch me freeze that broken stick of yours into firewood!"
The two chased each other in a chaotic mess. Natsu, hanging on the stick, was swung into this tree and that tree, occasionally flipped over by tree trunks, looking just like a mobile human sandbag, truly exuding the reckless, lively energy of youth.
If Natsu could speak now, he would probably say: Family, who understands this...
By the time they tossed and turned until the sun brushed the canopy line, Natsu, hanging from the stick, finally woke up with a groan. He opened his mouth and muttered, "Mushroom... sweet..." But as soon as he lifted his eyelids, he drooped them again and passed out, his head hanging directly on the wooden stick.
Natsu had woken up, but quickly fainted again; the stick was classified by Natsu as a means of transport, triggering the underlying code.
Unbinding him from the stick, Riyao cast a cyan Healing Magic circle on Natsu. The warm green light enveloped his body. Natsu let out a loud sneeze, finally waking up completely. He rubbed his stomach and sat up. "Who hit me just now?"
Following the direction Gray pointed, they walked for another half an hour and finally reached the clearing where the star-moon grass grew. Nearby, a dozen creatures resembling alpacas were surrounding the area, staring with round, black eyes and spitting at each other. Sticky saliva sprayed all over the grass, looking stupidly cute yet possessing a kind of dull ferocity.
Eww, it's all saliva.
Riyao immediately channeled his inner drama queen, leaned close to Natsu, and patted his shoulder so hard it almost shook off. He winked and put on an expression of "I absolutely believe in you." "Natsu! I have always known you are the strongest man in Fairy Tail! This group of grass... alpacas is left for you to handle! I believe you can beat them all away!"
Gray followed up in a second, crowding to Natsu's other side, patting with even more force than Riyao, almost causing Natsu to fall forward. "That's right! The time has come to prove you aren't just a rice bucket who only knows how to chew on poisonous mushrooms!"
Natsu, patted by both sides, felt his blood boil. Little orange flames sparked in his eyes, and he clenched his fists, making his palms crackle. "Woah! I am the strongest!"
Having said that, he let out a howl and rushed out. But as soon as he ran to the alpaca herd, he was sprayed in the face with a mouthful of saliva. Just as he had set his posture to throw a punch, he was sprayed by a dozen mouthfuls of saliva, causing him to scramble away. He turned and ran, shouting as he went, "I will definitely be back!"
The alpaca herd behind him chased happily, "tui tui tui~" saliva flying everywhere, even causing the grass leaves to fall to the ground.
Riyao and Gray had long since set their sights on a thick oak tree nearby. Stepping on each other's shoulders, they climbed up to the thick branches. Once Natsu and the alpaca herd had run far away, they immediately slipped down and pounced into the star-moon grass patch.
Riyao, while picking grass leaves and stuffing them into his tattered coat pocket, spoke without lifting his head, "Pick more. I'm afraid Natsu will chew on them if he gets hungry on the way back."
Gray also followed suit, picking a large handful and stuffing it into his pocket. "Makes sense!"
The two stuck their big butts in the air, burying their heads and picking frantically.