Berries

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"You now have one day and eight hours left."

It was noon of the fifth day, and Gray was just waking up. He did not feel like moving from his spot in the snow. The sky was a tumultuous silver, and he stared up as snow began to fall into his face. Still he did not move. One landed on his eyelash, and his lids closed.

He could almost see Ur standing there, her hand on her hip, giving him that stern look of hers whenever he dawdled.

"Come on, Gray. Lyon is waiting for us."

He smiled at her voice. If Ur was now in the sea, and the sea evaporated to become clouds, and those clouds became rain and snow, perhaps that meant a part of Ur was in the snowfall, too.

The flakes felt good, like little cold kisses. With his eyes closed, he saw Lucy there. She was floating above him, her golden hair draping around him, her large brown eyes gentle as she smiled tenderly.

"I want you, Gray," her voice said in a sensual wavering tone.

She kissed him, and he moaned softly. Then there were more small kisses, on his lips, on his cheeks, his forehead, his ear. Her icy kisses drifted down his neck, then over his bare chest.

"L-Lucy..." he moaned.

He reached up, but his hand went through the ghostly image of her. He wanted to hold her, to touch her, be warmed by her, and kiss her. He wanted to taste her plump lips and suckle those sumptuous breasts.

"Lucy," he sighed as the hallucination faded away.

He felt his mind drifting on the delirium of hunger. He opened his eyes again to see the baccate bushes beckoning to him with their crimson temptations. He realized there was no way he could make it in thirty-two hours if he lacked the energy to walk.

He dragged himself over to the left bush wall, the one he had been following before collapsing. It was still marked with the arrow of berries he made every night to remind him which path to take. He picked up those berries, now frozen in the snow, and stared at the ripe color.

He shook his head. As a child, he had been warned about bloodberries. If you ate one, you would not feel the effects instantly, but a day and a half later, enough time so that you forgot what it was you ate, that was when the poison would affect you. It hit the muscles first, causing extreme agony in the arms and legs. Then it hit the stomach, severe vomiting and diarrhea, and the dehydration intensified the muscle pain and delirium. Then it reached the brain, causing deliria and paranoia. It was not unheard of that someone with bloodberry poisoning might murder their own family in madness. Finally, after three days, death. Antidotes were rare, and it only stopped the advancement of the poison, not the effects already wrecking havoc on the body. It took a magical healer, a powerful one, to reverse the poison's effects. The only healer he knew of that magnitude was Wendy, and she was back in Magnolia.

He might make it out of this cursed maze without eating, but his progress would be incredibly slow. He had only thirty-two hours to reach Lucy. If he could not make it by then...

Was his life really worth living if he lost Lucy? How could he face his friends if they found out he saved himself but sacrificed her?

Gray looked at the crimson berries, then up into the sky. He heard Lucy's laugh and saw her smile in the clouds. Her lips were as red as those berries. He wanted to see that smile again, if just once before the end.

"To save Lucy," he said in a raspy voice, "I'll risk it all."

Then he popped a berry into his mouth. It was sinfully sweet, and his stomach sensed the return of nutrients. He grabbed two more berries and chewed them, spitting out the seed in the middle. Then he scooped up all the berries that made the arrow and put everything, berries and snow, into his mouth. As he chewed, he plucked off more and more berries, barely waiting before putting them into his mouth. Blood red juice dripped down his chin and stained the pure white snow.


In the cabin, the lacrima screen beeped, and a new counter began.

Lucy jolted, having fallen asleep at the table while watching Gray. The camera now was at a bad angle. She could only see his back. However, the new ticking counter was what caught her eye.

"What's that?" she asked.

Wisteria came over from where she was cooking in the cabin's kitchen. Her brow tightened when she saw the screen.

"That idiotic fool! He's eaten the berries."

Lucy gasped in horror and looked at the screen again. She still could not see well, but she realized Gray's hands were ripping off berries from the bushes. His head turned for a moment as he spit out the seeds, and she saw the bloody stains on his chin.

Suddenly, she shrieked, "Nooooo!"

Lucy jumped up and ran to the door. Wisteria bolted after her and held Lucy in a vise-like grip just before her hand could reach the doorknob.

"You can't go out there. You'll give him another penalty, and his time is limited already."

"I don't care," she sobbed. "If he eats those berries, he'll die."

"It's too late, Lucy," the woman warned. "Even if he vomits them this very instant, the poison is in his blood." She sighed and rested her head on Lucy's back. "I'm sorry. There's nothing either of us can do now."

Lucy collapsed to her knees. "No ... please, God, no!"

Wisteria sat with her and hugged Lucy into her chest. The purple-haired woman stroked that blond hair and rocked Lucy gently, trying to give her what comfort she could under her limited circumstances as a servant to a madman.

"We can't do anything but pray, Lucy. If he makes it in time, perhaps Whitehall will be merciful and get Gray to a healer before it's too late. Or maybe your friends can rush him to the nearest town. Just keep hope in him."

Lucy nodded while sniffling. She slowly stood, her knees shaking, and Wisteria helped her back to the table. Gray had eaten his fill, and already he looked more alert. He cleaned off the horrific berry stains with a bit of snow.

"That's ... odd," Wisteria mumbled. "The counter shows how many days he has left before the berries kill him, but it says two days and not three."

"Is it because he ate so many?" asked Lucy.

"Quantity doesn't matter with this poison. Northern bloodberry poisoning is determined by body temperature. Someone who is hot burns off the poison, but it flows more readily in someone who is cold. If this is showing he only has two days, Gray must be frozen near death. Considering he lost his shirt sometime yesterday, that's not surprising, I guess."

"No, that's just how he is," Lucy assured her. "He's an ice wizard, so his body temperature is much lower than normal people."

"That's not good," Wisteria frowned. "I'm not sure if he'll have time to get to a healer now."

"How much longer until he reaches the cabin?"

Wisteria hummed as she looked at the area around Gray. The ice wizard rose and began walking again. As he moved away, the monitor suddenly flicked to a camera at a different angle. "I don't know this section," she mused thoughtfully, "but I would say he's a little over one day away."

Lucy looked at the main counter. One day and eight hours. Gray could make it! There was still hope!

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