A Filthy Thief

It was spring, Wendy's favourite time of the year. Spring had the feeling of life and a fresh start. It was her first year back, the first year after seven long sad ones. The guild she had come home to was small. It had changed while they were gone. She didn't mind change but this change was different, it was a sad change.

The guild was struggling. It never got any of the good job requests so no new members came. The wizards who called the guild home were struggling to. The guild was still her home, and it's members her family...but, her family seemed weaker, and more lonely then before. All her friends were trying to catch up on what they had missed. Everything was different, not just the guild. There were rents to pay, jobs to do, and most of all chatting. Although things had changed, the changes brought new stories, stories that people would tell over and over again, until they were tired of hearing them and after a while new stories started to form.

There were stories of the last seven years, about how fairy tail had tried to move on from losing part of their family. There were stories from the S class Exam, all the battles that were fought, boasts of "It would have been me who won" or complaints of "you only barely one that fight".

On this particular day Natsu and Happy were telling the story of their latest job. Wendy had caught something about a thief and a grocery store but payed little attention to it. She could hear the outdoors calling to her. She quickly told Carla she was going for a walk and before the cat could protest, Wendy was out the door.

She walked down by the river that flowed into magnolia. She could see the city just beyond the hill to her left, and beside the hill the river ran. It ran up the hill and crossed back and forth finally reaching the city. The river was not fast but it was long, it added a bright blue to the green grassy hill and the bright colours of the city. She left the river and walked along a trail in the woods. The woods were filled with bugs. She could hear all different kinds of chirping and humming and flapping of tiny insect wings.

She could hear a little stream gurgling on the warm spring day it's inhabitants happily swimming, or in some cases croaking with delight. She couldn't see any big animals though. Usually their were dear, or at least rabbits, but she couldn't see any yet. It must be to early in the season.

She splashed along in the stream. She walked back along the trail rejoicing at the soft spring breeze.

"Watch your step!"

She screamed as she was flung into the air, with a rope tied around her ankle. She hung there for a moment, to stunned to move. There was a moment of stillness.

"Hello?" Wendy called out into the forest.

There was a rustling in the trees and suddenly Wendy found herself falling very ungracefully to the ground.

She looked the rope that was still attached to her ankle, it had been untied from the tree hanging above where she sat.

"Hello?" She tried again. No one answered.

Wendy stood up and started to sniff the air, all she could smell was dirt and forest.

A branch snapped, the large branch fell to the ground followed by someone, both crashing on the ground and making a pained 'ugh!'.

The person in question stood up and started to run from Wendy.

"Stop! Wait up!"

Wendy started to sprint running as fast as she could. This person was fast, and they also new their way around the forest. Wendy stopped and gasped in air roaring at the figure. The person stumbled and Wendy quickly caught up to them.

The figure sat there covering their face with their hands.
"Sorry that was my trap. But I did warn you to watch your step." Said the figure in a rough female voice.
Wendy looked at this strange girl. Her hair was in tangles and was too dirty to make out any colour. She wore a ripped up pair of brown shorts, and a filthy t-shirt, which was to dirty to see any design. Everything about this girl was dirty. The only thing that wasn't dirty was a necklace with a heart charm on it. The shiny silver glinted in the suns light.

"I'm Wendy"

there was silence as the girl said nothing.
"What's your name?" asked Wendy.
Still the girl did not respond.
Wendy crossed her arms.

"Let me leave." The girl didn't remove her hands from her face.

Wendy was saddened a little by the stranger's words, but she ignored the girl's request.
"Why are you hiding your face?"

No response.

Wendy knelt down and tried to remove the girl's hands, but the girl was strong and resisted at Wendy's gentle touch.

"Why won't you let me see your face?"

"Why do you need to know what I look like?"

Wendy sat for a moment. She didn't know why it mattered to her so much, but she felt like she needed to know this girl, that this girl was somehow important.

"Instinct." Wendy said.

Silence.

"I won't hurt you I promise."

Slowly the girl lowered her hands. Her face was covered in dirt but besides that she was very pretty. Wendy met her eyes and gazed at them. They were dark green. Dull in colour they still shown like emeralds, a fire hiding in her pupils. Behind the fire there was a despair, a sadness the danced around the centre of her Iris. But at the edge, in the corner of her eye, Wendy could see fer. Not the fear of any one person. Not a fear of Wendy or of being alone in the woods. A constant fear, a nightmare that had come to life.

"Do you live here?" asked Wendy, sitting on the ground with the girl.
There was a nod.
"Do you have a camp of some sorts?"

The girl Sat for a while. Wendy wanted to know what she was thinking about. Was she deciding wither or not to answer? Was the girl thinking about stealing from her? Was she going to run away from Wendy? Why was the girl sitting there? Both of them sitting in the forest on the ground. What did the girl gain from the conversation? What was she afraid of?

Finally the girl stood up. Wendy felt a panic go through her. She didn't want the girl to leave. Her gut was telling her that this girl was important.

"Have you eaten?"

The girl shook her head.

"We should go have lunch together!"

The girl shook her head again.

"I have no money."

"I'll pay." Wendy gave a small smile as the girl looked at her "We can go to my guild, you could meet all my friends!"
But before the girl could refuse Wendy grabbed her arm and started to pull her out of the forest.

...

1 Day earlier

"Iganda!Iganda!You can't leave me please!" she ran as fast as she could trying to keep up.
"Iganda!I love you!Don't you love me!" she kept screaming, and running but Iganda just turned away from her and disappeared behind a curtain of fog, she ran through after her. And looked at the ground only to see a dragons footprint. But there was nothing else there.

"IGANDA!" she sat up panting. It was a dream. She looked at the sky. The sun was almost down, she had woken up just in time.

She walked over to her pack that was sitting next to the stream. And pulled out a scarf. The scarf was a plain black one. She quickly tied it around her head and mouth so that only her eyes showed. She took out some extra rope, encase she had to climb or tie up someone, and a bow with a handful of arrows. She wasn't good with a bow, but it was the only true weapon she had. She hoped it would scare off any one who saw her, but in desperate situations she could shoot a arrow close to the target she wanted, though she never once could hit the target.

She was wearing dark brown pants and a t-shirt that she had covered in mud to hide it's bright colour. The only thing she kept clean was her prized possession, a necklace with a heart charm on it.

She quickly checked the rope traps that she had left out to catch some animals. Nothing. Man was she hungry. She wished she would at least catch something in them. She sighed.

She walked along the stream her pack, now empty, on her shoulders. She soon approached a river that flowed directly into magnolia. She took a deep breath and ran.

"Do we really have to be here?" Natsu whined, he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.
"yes we do!" they all shouted in return.
"If it weren't for you lighting the town on fire we wouldn't have to do it without pay!" that was Lucy.

On their last mission he had tried to burn the town along with the robbers they were trying to stop. And because of the sure mayhem that the fire had caused the robbers had escaped their grasp, and so had their pay. As result Erza felt the need to take a job without pay to make up for the whole town burning thing. So the master had put them in charge of guarding a grocery store.

"I can't believe we're guarding a grocery store!" Gray said stripping his shirt and throwing it somewhere behind him.
Erza gave him a deadly look. Quickly he found his shirt and started to put it back on.
"this grocery store has been robbed every night this week." she said.
"We've been tasked to guard the store and catch the thieves if we run into them." Added Lucy
"Right" said Erza "let's split up! And Natsu...try not to use magic."

Natsu guarded the second floor, which was being used as a storage area. Gray, Lucy and Erza were guarding the main floor as it was much bigger and there was much more to destroy. Natsu grumbled something about how he would show them. He could do more than just burn stuff! He was incredibly helpful. Thinking these wonderful thoughts Natsu leaned against a crate and promptly fell asleep.

When he woke up he could smell something. It smelt like mostly dirt, but it had a fresh air kind of smell to it. And what was most peculiar of all was that the last scent, hidden under all the dirt, smelled familiar. He couldn't remember it though. He brushed it off, what was important was that someone was there.

She ran down through town and when she got close to the grocery store she slowed down. she climbed up to the second floor. Damn it there must be people inside, their scents lingered all over the building. That means no breaking in through the door. She climbed higher until she got to the roof. She hated breaking in this way. She hung over the edge of the roof and took out a piece of plastic she had found. She stuck it in the crack between the window. She experimented with which part of the crack was thicker until she found the biggest part. She bent the plastic so that it would reach up and managed to undo the latch. Silently she praised herself. Slowly she opened the window with a creek and slid through making a soft thump as she landed.

She closed the window and stood up, walking towards a crate near the corner. All she had to do was make it to the door.

Damn it. She had found a security guard leaning against a crate. She backed up quickly holding her breathe and praying that he didn't hear her. She peeked her head around the crate and looked at the guard. With a sigh of relief she realized that the guard in question was either asleep or unconscious. She stood up again and started towards the door, when the guard started to stir.

Damn it! She ducked behind another crate and curled up into a tight ball, hiding in the soft shadows of the room. She could here him sniffing the air, he had caught her scent.

GOD DAMN IT!She had not other choice but to run, but then her stomach ...

growled? He swear he heard his stomach growl, but his stomach didn't growl. Then what could that noise be. Maybe it was the thief. That would explain the odd smell. He stood up and walked a couple of steps.

What should he do?

The first thing that came to mind was to light the room on fire. He happily lit his fist in preparation of his plan. no. Wait a second, that would work but Erza said no magic. Where were they? He turned around and started to look behind all the crates. He found a masked figure hiding in between two of the crates. Unfortunately for him they were prepared for him and jabbed him in his stomach. He took a step back to recover and launched his own attack. The thief just barely dodged as Natsu's fist hit the wall. Erza was the first to hear this. She yelled at the others to come to the second floor. The thief jumped on to the crate and dodged another attack from Natsu.

"fight back you coward!" he yelled at her.
She sent a punch strait for his stomach. He grabbed her fist before it hit him. This made her smile. She punched hard with the other arm. He quickly stopped that punch too. She kicked him in the stomach instead. She sent him flying towards the back of the room. He immediately stood up. He lunged forward. He punched her strait in the face. She fell to the ground with a thud.

She stood on her knees and reached for her rope. She didn't have time for this. But just then someone came from behind and grabbed her. She was currently in a chock hold. In front of her stood the pink headed man she had been fighting and another man without a shirt on and a woman carrying a whip. She sent an angry gaze to them all.

Then something caught her eye. There was a pink mark on the girls hand. She couldn't see what it was from here. She squinted. Damn it...Today was just not her day. These people were all mages.