It had only been a few months since I had arrived in Ishgar but everything still seemed so foreign to me here. The people, the architecture, culture and religion was nothing like back home. Even for its alien differences, Fiore and Ishgar in general had begun to grow on me. Though I couldn't afford to waste anytime here in this nation, no matter how much I liked it, I can't and I won't forget the purpose of my journey to Ishgar, to become a truly great mage.

The town of Hargeon hugged the coast of Fiore tightly and only one thing crossed my mind when I look at it, it reminds me of home. Though I had to put my personal feelings aside as there was a job that needed to be done in Hargeon. For all of its beauty and culture, it held a dark secret that I would need to expose. It was home to a dark guild who had been kidnapping citizens, though it wasn't yet known why.

I sat down on a bench in the centre of town and opened my mission journal, this dark guild that I had been hunting had been very active in town and its activities didn't make sense to me. Why would a dark guild set up shop in such a busy port town, then start to kidnap random citizens in said town. There were much better locations than this to occupy, but yet they lingered here. I stood up from the bench and stretched my limbs, this was going to be a long day and I would need to be at my sharpest if I were to end this dark guild and the threat that it poses.

For this investigation I would need to question some of the victims who had managed to escape the guild, though that posed a problem by itself. I mean not everyone would be willing to talk, especially to some foreigner that they have never met before. Alas, I'm sure it'll be fine, and if anything ever went wrong I always have my exceptional skills and amazing charm to fall back on. I stifled a laugh and began to walk to the clinic where I knew a few of the victims where being held in protective custody by the crown.

I looked down at my chest and examined the clothes that I had been wearing for far too long at this point. I'm sure I won't look too intimidating to the victims and get them to open up about their capture and escape to me. My clothes were still remarkably white for the amount of ware they have seen since my journey began. These weren't just clothes to me, these pieces of fabric were the way that I expressed my culture. Even if I did get odd looks for wearing all white outfits, I always have been a bold person.

I strolled down the street rather carelessly and ended up misstepping and falling off of the pavement, and as I fell I heard a sound that would eventually become much more common in my life.

"Excuse me are you ok?" a rather high pitched voice questioned, and as I looked up to see where the voice came from. I was met with the brown eyes of a complete stranger.

I immediately stood up and regained my composure, and examined the girl in front of me and smiled. She was rather adorable in all fairness, and from the keys on her waist she must be one of those celestial wizards I had heard so much about. I bowed my head slightly and spoke up, "I am fine, thank you"

She smiled softly at me and spoke up, "I am Lucy, what is your name?" I looked at her curiously and grinned "My name is Elia, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Lucy".

She looked at me with a casual smile and said "Are you travelling alone here, Elia?"

I quickly replied with little hesitation "Yes I am travelling alone, what about yourself?" I looked at her suspiciously, if she was one of the dark wizard she would maybe think that I am easy prey and try to attack. In that case I would overpower her and interrogate her about where the guild has been operating and raid it.

Lucy looked at me in the eye "Nope, I'm here with some of my guild mates but I had to leave them at the restaurant as they were making a scene. It was rather embarrassing." She rolled her eyes playfully and chuckled softly.

I walked closer to her and grinned as I placed a hand on her shoulder, and looked down at her.

"I need to go somewhere Lucy, it has been a pleasure and I hope that I will see you around" I stated.

As I walked off, she waved me away. I still had a job to do and I couldn't waste anymore time talking to pretty girls, no matter how much I enjoyed it.

I arrived at the medical clinic quickly and from what I could see it wasn't so much a clinic, it was more along the lines of a shack. Though it maybe rather…. destitute, I walked through the door and found myself staring at the dead body of the exact victim I was hoping to talk to.

"Well this is going to be a rather one-sided conversation now isn't it, just what I needed for my investigation" I sighed and rubbed my forehead in frustration.

I knelt down next to the body and I could feel the tainted magic that polluted his body, this had to be the work of the dark guild. I touched the skin of the man and it was stone cold, he had been dead for a while. This immediately roused my suspicions as no-one found him in this amount of time, and the clinic was completely empty. That could only mean one thing, the dark guild had kidnapped the survivors and for some reason had killed this one man.

I jumped up from the body and screamed "Sword of the Radiant Flame", and as soon as I finished casting the spell, a brilliant beam of light came into my hand and formed into a perfectly forged sword. I turned around swinging my sword and I stopped as I recognised the same set of brown eyes from earlier.

"Oh god, Lucy it's you. I almost killed you, sorry." I said sheepishly and made my sword disappear. I looked next to her and I seen a man I hadn't seen before, he looked rather odd especially with that pink hair and weird scarf. Though weird fashion choices aside I could feel the power radiating from him.

"it's fine Elia, just don't cut my head off please" Lucy wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at me warily.

After Lucy's respond to my apology I looked above her head and seen one of the strangest things I had ever seen in my life, a floating cat. "Lucy, why is there a floating cat there?"

As soon as I finished my sentence I heard a high pitch squeal "I'm not a cat, I'm an exceed and my name is Happy". The feline came down to land on his feet and stood up tall, (as tall as he can).

I just looked up at this creature, who had identified itself as Happy and I sighed. Why is Ishgar so weird, he is a cat but he can communicate with us. I smiled widely and reached down to grab him, he tried to run but since we were inside there was nowhere to run for him. I snuggled him into my chest grinning massively. "He has to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen!" I declared."

While I was caught up in my adulation for the small blue cat I heard a loud roar from the person standing next to Lucy. "Hey! Get your hands off Happy"

I looked up and noticed the pink haired man spawning flames from his hands preparing to hit me, I shielded Happy and prepared to dodge his attack. Before he could unleash his attack Lucy stepped in front of him. "Natsu, don't attack her, she isn't the enemy!"

He groaned as she forced him to stand down, I composed myself and walked forward to shake his hand. "I'm Elia by the way, it's a pleasure to meet you Natsu."

He mumbled something under his breath and barely registered my introduction. Lucy stepped in mercifully to end the awkward situation. "What are you doing here Elia, this is a crime scene and our job was to seek out this person and find the people who done this."

I smiled softly taking a few steps back from Natsu, "Well you aren't the only person that the local lord hired to do this job. I am an independent mage and I was offered the job by the same person as you," I replied swiftly.

She looked apologetically to me, and gestured to the body. "Do you know what happened to the victim here Elia?" Lucy asked

I knelt down beside the body and began to speak "He has definitely been murdered by a dark mage, I can feel the taint from his body. The more interesting point of this scene is the fact that he hasn't been found yet and the clinic is completely empty. If I were to guess, I'd have to say that the dark guild has came into the clinic at night and murdered this man and taken the rest as captives back to their base."

Lucy nodded in agreement and Natsu kneeled down and smelt the corpse, before I could say anything objecting to this 'unorthodox' behaviour around a corpse, he perked up and started to sprint out of the clinic.

As he started to run he shouted "Follow me, I know where they are holding the captives", I looked at him in shock and decided to put my faith in him and followed him quickly just in front of Lucy and Happy.

Running down the streets of Hargeon I stopped right next to Natsu, panting for breath I recognised the place we were stood in front of, it was the local rum distillery.

Natsu quickly spoke "I knew as soon as I smelt the body that the people who killed him were here, the body smelt like alcohol and sugar. There's only one place that could produce that scent in and around Hargeon and it's this place." He smiled slyly and I couldn't help but smile, his grin was rather infectious just like his energy is.

Just behind us we heard Lucy getting carried by Happy. He laid her down and sat on Natsu's head " Lucy is so heavy, I barely have enough energy to go on living,"As happy finished speaking he wiped his head. I coldly help but giggl softly as Lucy chased Happy.

I smiled at Natsu as we prepared to storm the distillery.

"Armour of Artemis, and Sword of the Radiant Flame" I shouted.

As I finished casting my spell my body was engulfed in light arming me in my armour and my sword. I closed my eyes softly and felt the light radiate from within me, this feeling will never cease to amaze me. This magic was a gift from the gods and it would allow me to exert his will against those who would seek to harm their world and its inhabitants.

After Lucy stopped her hapless pursuit of Happy who simply soared above her, she turned around and looked at me in amazement "What magic is that Elia, I have never seen anything like it in my life." I smiled at her softly "It is called solar magic, it's basically sun magic. In all actuality it's not too different from Natsu's fire magic minus the dragon slayer powers. We can talk about it a bit more when we don't have to storm a building filled with mages."

I stretched my muscles and looked towards Natsu. "Are you ready, Natsu?" I grinned cockily. "I'm beyond ready" Natsu said with his signature smile.

I charged at the door and took it off of the hinges. The inside of the distillery was dark except for a massive bonfire in the centre, where a prisoner was dangling above the massive blaze. The three of us charged into the room and took in the surroundings, the entire dark guild was in the building and the rest of the prisoners were nowhere to be seen.

"What do we have here." A loud booming voice said, and we looked forward and seen a huge man standing on a platform overlooking the factory floor. Even from distance I could tell he was covered in scars and tattoos.

Natsu was already covered and flames and screamed at the top of his lungs"We are mages from Fairy Tail and we are here to stop you." After his declaration he lunged forward and started attacking the goons who dared stand before the son of Igneel.

"You call yourself Mages! All I can see are parasites who are about to be crushed under my boot." The large man jumped down from the platform and began directing the less important dark ages towards the three.

I strutted forward in complete confidence and as some of the dark ages came running at me, I swatted them aside easily with my sword. Though one of the mages were still standing in front of me, he was a badly burned man who began to emit lighting at me from his hands.

He was jumping up and down ravenously "No, no, no. You can't get past me, no-one ever does." He screamed in an almost possessed manner. I rolled my eyes at him and screamed "Blinding light".

He squealed as my spell washed over him and temporarily blinded him. "I can't see!" He wailed. I watched with a smirk on my face as he tried to hide somewhere, I walked next to him and hit him over the head with the hilt of my sword.

"Well so much for not getting past." I giggled softly at his misfortune and turned my attention towards the rest of my group. Natsu and Lucy were tearing apart the guild completely, she had summoned what looked like …. a giant cow? I laughed to myself thinking about the sheer insanity of these people, I mean you would never find a flying cat or giant cow back home.

The master of the guild shot a bolt from a crossbow and snapped the rope that was holding the prisoner above the bonfire, the poor soul fell quickly but not quickly enough to to stop one of Lucy's spirts saving the girl. Natsu began to consume the fire, the guild master was furious and began to storm towards them.

"Heretics will not be tolerated, Zeref will conquer all!" He screamed and manically swung his axe and forced Lucy and Natsu to dodge his attack.

As Lucy's spirt handed the prisoner over to Happy, he came back to her side. "Princess, is it timer his punishment".

Lucy looked quickly to her pink haired spirit, "Yes Virgo, now give him what he deserves". As soon as Lucy mentioned punishment Virgo's eyes lit up, she immediately drilled beneath the distillery and came up from under the master sending him flying.

Natsu wasn't standing idly by as Lucy unleashed Virgo, he had moved behind the master and cast a spell "Fire Dragon Roar!" A flurry of flames escaped Natsu's mouth and engulfed the master, he screamed in pain and Natsu simply let the flames go out leaving the master unconscious after passing out from the pain.

"Happy go check the back for the prisoners" Natsu commanded. Happy simply travelled to the back to find the res of the clinic and the prisoners. "Lucy could you go and check the girl that almost got dropped into the fire."

"No problem, Natsu." She winked softly and went to the girl who was laying watching us.

I couldn't help but smirk at Natsu and he smiled back, it suddenly hit me that I would now have nothing to do after this mission. It would undoubtedly give me some publicity but it wouldn't be enough, I still need more.

Natsu spoke up "Ella, what are you going to do now". I rolled my eyes at his mispronunciation of my name "Well I'm not really sure to be honest, I don't have anything to do or anywhere to go."

He smiled at me "You should come back to Magnolia with us and speak to Gramps about joining up, you wouldn't regret it. Just talk to Luce back there, and you would be able to make a lot of new friends."

I looked at Natsu and wondered, would it really be a bad thing to join up with a guild here in Ishgar? It would offer me a lot of opportunities to become a better mage, and I would be able to meet new people there and If they were anything like Natsu, Lucy or Happy they would certainly be a lively bunch. "You make a good point, Natsu. You've persuaded me, I'll come and join your guild." I smiled softly and looked into his onyx eyes.

After hearing my reply Natsu grinned "Well, welcome to Fairy Tail."