Hello, my name is QuietInspiration! You can call me QI, though. I've decided to finally get back to writing and I guess I;ve improved my writing skills since my last story. I'm sort of using this story to test the waters and I'm sorry if I get anything wrong or OOC because I haven't written anything since the summer.

I'd like to thank Fatherfail for helping me with the idea for this story and I'd like to thank everybody who thinks this story is interesting enough to review it! I hope you like this story!

The forest was dark, but the burning fire kept the darkness from swallowing the small campsite up. The flames glowed orange and three people were huddled around the fire, their voices low. All of them wore black cloaks that draped over their entire bodies. One of the figures around the fire shivered and growled angrily.

"Why do we have to meet out here? Don't we have a guild building to meet in? Couldn't we have found someplace warmer?" the figure asked in a deep and angry voice, one of the figures nodding their head in agreement.

"I was actually about to get to that topic, Henderson. The reason we didn't meet in the guild building is because we are broke. Inner Circle no longer as any funds to keep a guild building."

The man named Henderson stared at the man who had just spoken. If his face had been visible, his face would have shown complete shock. Henderson immediately stood up, towering over the other two. His voice was full of disbelief.

"We're broke? How's that even possible?! The jobs we take give us plenty of money! There's no way we can just go broke like that! Where is everybody else anyways?! Why is it just the three of us at this meeting?' demanded Henderson, another person standing up to calm the man down.

The second person was much shorter than Henderson and a higher pitched voice, like a child.

"I think I understand why we're out of money, Henderson." said the figure quietly as Henderson grunted. "I think it's because of the jobs we take. Our jobs are actually making us lose money."

The only person still sitting nodded their head. Henderson crossed his arms and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. He still couldn't believe it.

"Casper is correct. The jobs we take are highly illegal, forcing us to take extra precautions not to get caught and forcing us to spend huge amounts of money to bribe officials in order to keep the news of our doings on the down low. Everybody else has been sent to find a suitable place to serve as our guild building for the time being. So, with that being said, I would like to propose the kidnapping of Lucy Heartfilia in order to raise funds." said the sitting man, everyone looking at him.

The figure named Casper rubbed his hands together and Henderson shrugged his shoulders.

"Does she even have money? I've hear that she lost everything after their company went under." said Henderson, skeptical of the whole idea.

"I'm sure she has something of value. Her family was one of the richest in the entire country and if she doesn't have anything, nothing lost. We really don't have anything to lose at this point…" Casper and Henderson nodded, agreeing with the statement.

The sitting man clapped his hands together and stood up, looking at Casper and Henderson.

"Let's get our hands dirty, shall we?"

…

I hope you guys liked this chapter! I thought it was really bad, but it was the first chapter I;ve written in a really long time so I hope this was alright!