Running. That's all that was on her mind at this point. She couldn't even look back to try and throw some magic at who was chasing her. She had to stop, so she doubled back, in the trees. She paused for a brief moment, catching her breath. She glanced to her left and saw a beautiful town, one that the village had called Magnolia.
She glanced back at her pursuers, which had figured out that she had doubled back. But she heard someone in the distance. She heard a scream. They were in trouble. Something inside her told her to go to them, but she couldn't at first. In the end, she ran towards the scream.
As she was running, her pursuers had found her. They surrounded her and closed in. She wouldn't make it to save whoever had screamed out… She had failed. Again.
A few hours earlier
Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Happy, and Carle were on a job together. It wasn't necessarily a big job, but more of needing each other's talents. Part of the job was deciphering some riddles that were on the job request, the others given to them from the feast they had been given. Of course, Natsu, Erza, and Gray were there for any opponents that proved too much for others. The exceeds were following their partners as usual, and Wendy was there to help however she could. She had gotten much stronger with the Grand Magic Games and with the brief training from before that.
It didn't take long for Lucy to figure out the riddles, which didn't even correlate to the job. It was just a joke. At least, that's what they thought. All of the riddles had pointed out to a small girl, lost, afraid, powerful. They threw it aside like it was nothing. What idiots.
Somehow, the team had been separated. An ice wall had appeared between them, and neither side could get through, not even with Natsu's fire. Wendy and Lucy had ended up on one side with Carle, the rest on the other side. Lucy had slumped down against the wall, not in anger or fear, but disappointment. She knew she wasn't the strongest member of the team, but she just wanted to show her stuff to the other group. She had to redeem herself from the games.
"Lucy, is everything alright?" Wendy saw the disappointed look on her face.
Lucy hesitated to answer. She knew her plan was silly and stupid, so she nodded and plastered a fake smile onto her lips. "Yeah, everything's fine now. I was just thinking,"
"Alright. Maybe we should stay here. The ice wall seems to go on forever when you look to the side. It's too high for Carle to fly us over too. Her transformation would wear out,"
Lucy thought for a moment. "No, we should continue on. They can handle themselves, and so can we," She gave another smile to the blue haired girl.
So, that's what they did. They continued forth, to who knows where.
"Natsu! Look out!" Erza yelled towards the fire mage, requiping into her Black Wing Armour. She raced over to Natsu, blocking the strike from a huge snow giant. Gray had turned in time to look at it and gape. Natsu too, but jumped out of Erza's way after she blocked its' hit for him, "Dimwit! Be more careful next time!"
"Yes ma'am!" Natsu sweat dropped. That was the last time he worried about a stupid ice wall. He glanced back at it however. His grin showing up on his face. Be careful, Luce. I know you'll be fine.
Natsu jumped into the battle, throwing fire attack after fire attack at the gathering snow giants. Gray had caught up with himself as well and started pounding at the giants.
"Lucy, are we lost?"
"Of course not! I know what I'm doing!"
"Then why have we gone in circles?"
"Fine, Carle. We're lost. Happy?"
"Very. I was right,"
Lucy clenched her fists, not seeing any reasons, except for Wendy, to hold back against this exceed. She was almost as bad as a certain blue ball of fur.
"Lucy, what did the job request ask us to do exactly? Erza never actually told me," Wendy was playing with her hands, and was focused on the ground beneath them.
Lucy let out a long sigh, "Erza said something about a dark guild being up here, and they were causing trouble to a few villages. Erza and I went to meet with the village elder. He said that they were around here, but there was a force other than just them that was very powerful," She paused for a moment, her mind going back to the riddles.
Wendy seemed to read her mind as they both stopped, "Well, the riddles were talking about a girl that was afraid, and lost, but we thought it was just a joke. Lucy, do you think-"
"That whatever the riddles are speaking of is the powerful force? Yeah, anyone with a brain could put two and two together like that, when they think about it at least," she grinned down at Wendy. "If we come across the dark guild, we need to do everything we can to take it down. We don't have the others to rely on, okay?"
Wendy nodded and gave Lucy a determined look. They smiled at each other before continuing on. It wouldn't be long before they reached the dark guild's base, even if they had no idea where they were.
Author's Note:Thank you so much more reading! I will be updating on (hopefully) Tuesdays and Fridays! I really appreciate you taking the time to read this story and would just like to say this: I am terrible at writing with a deadline. Which is why I already have this story written and will be able to just read them through and then post.
I'll let you go on your merry little way! See you later my Galactic Chicks!
