Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters. But I love to play with them, every now and then. Don't worry, I take good care of them. ;)
A/N: This story is going to be one of the few multi chapters that I have planned. I hope that you enjoy it.
This isn't betaed, so I apologize for my mistakes.
Reviews are always appreciated.
Muses
Chapter One - Beginning
Clouds of smoke are rising to the sky, but being quickly swept by the wind.
A light brown dust is covering the ruins and the blocks of stone that are scattered through the ancient space. This seems to have been an ancient house, some walls are still up, albeit precariously, and the forest nearby is starting to invade the place insidiously. Vines cling to the walls and twine on the ground, small bushes sprouting here and there and splashing bright colours here and there, amidst the brown and dark green of the vegetation. The sun is starting to set, painting the horizon in a warm reddish orange, at the same time that light blue followed by dark one is starting to take over the sky. However, from the middle of the ruins bright flames are dancing and crackling happily. That is the source of the smoke column that rises and is quickly dispersed, leaving only a smudge that is harder to discern against the darkening sky.
A swarm of men clad in dark blue robes is moving. The crunch of the dry stones and their voices resonate and create an incredible noise. For moments, the rumble of disconnected voices and metallic sounds of weapons and several other objects, still. Time suspends as if it were at a knife's edge.
Then, chaos breaks out.
From one end it is possible to see a fiery pink haired youth moving aggressively, subduing his opponents thanks to the fire. People are falling like flies.
On the other end, the temperature has descended; where the other youth is fiery this one is icy, taking in his foes with a calculating coldness. He is taking them down, efficiently, but his eyes are set on one enemy.
The man in light blue robes is the real enemy here.
The others seem to be fodder to him. He is really dangerous, the ice mage can sense it.
After some tense and frenetic minutes and a good number of his enemies have fallen, Gray gets a terrible feeling. With a couple of steps his back hits the decrepit wall and the dark haired mage realizes that he has been pushed into a corner.
Suddenly, a sound akin to a pan flute cuts through the chaos. All the cloaked people that are surrounding and threatening Gray pull back a couple of steps; something lights the corner.
It looks like a seal of sorts has been activated, a green light emanating from the rough, grainy ground and ascending. At first it is raising in threads of light but the threads quickly start to be attracted by Gray's form. They stretch and start enveloping him. They moved lazily, tendrils of light undulated and clung to Gray's skin, sending a jolt of electricity that was followed by a chill that seemed to extend to the ice mage's core.
Natsu's busy with the swarm of people that apparently are stupid enough to get on his way, but he didn't fail to notice the strange situation that is happening where he feels Gray is.
He didn't have much time to do anything other than notice how that light had concentrated itself around Gray before the light exploded, filling the space and blinding everybody momentarily while the tendrils sped up in all directions, leaving a small fizzing sound behind.
The rustle of clothes came not five seconds later and Natsu only manages to see a few enemies hurrying and leaving them alone. On the other side of the room, Natsu can hear the strange man laughing gleefully while he dashes away, followed by a handful of dark clad minions.
Natsu can feel a vein start to throb in his forehead and, before he knows it he's running towards them; his fists flaming and his blood boiling.
The enemies that decide to get in his way are promptly taken care of and the Salamander quickly gets to the man. He is holding a small, plastic ball in his outstretched hand but Natsu charges and tackles him to the ground before there's time for him to do anything. They roll on the ground, limbs twined and battling madly, scratching and burning, at the same time that the fabric of the cloak gets on the way and manages to tangle them more in each other. It's no wonder that the ball rolls out of sight.
Natsu manages to untangle himself and lands a couple of hard punches on the guy's arms and torso. In no time he rights himself, kneeling, and his fists ignite. On his next punch he aims for the face and it is with sickening pleasure that he feels the bone crunch and the muscle burn. His following movement is to get up and jump back. The guy seems to be unresponsive but Natsu isn't going to take this lightly so he lets out a column of fire, that incinerates him.
Then, without a single look back he hurries to where Gray's prostrated form lays.
The fire mage kneels on the floor and, carefully, presses two fingers against his companion's pulse point. A huff of relief leaves him as he realizes that the direst of the situations hasn't occurred.
The other mage's chest's strangely covered in burns and there's a gooey fluid clinging to his skin. Natsu tries to wake him, shaking his shoulder and calling his name. Unfortunately his only result was a hand covered with a nasty substance and a tang that the fire mage knew quite well – it is blood. His face contorts in a slight grimace.
However, try as he might to wake him, Gray remains unconscious.
Natsu walks impatiently through the guild for the second time that day.
The first hasn't been a pleasant one as it was when he got back from the mission with Gray in his arms and hurried to demand a bed to the unconscious ice mage.
Makarov and a bunch of guild members hurried to help but the guild was half empty.
Gray had been laid in a bed and Natsu was quickly ushered out the room, told to come back in a couple of hours. At first the Master had demanded what had happened but when he noticed Natsu's state he let him go. It wouldn't do well to have a fire mage setting things on fire and taking down walls because he was anxious and nervous and wanted to know what was going on with his friend. So, the Master gave him strict orders for him to distract himself.
Hence, a terrible wait for Natsu had begun. He didn't have the girls there to distract him, Happy was with them on a mission and the prime choice for him to fight was the very same reason why he was like this.
He was sure that this wait was going to be awful.
Seeing that the fire mage has arrived, Makarov hurries to go meet him. He looks sombre and Natsu knows right away that he is bearing bad news.
"You're here. Come, I have something to tell you…." The Master starts heading towards the infirmary, Natsu striding nervously on his side, almost out striding him. The fire mage didn't like this situation, at all.
When they enter the room in question, Natsu instantly notices that the ice mage is awake. He's grimacing – which means that he probably has just drank a potion that didn't taste all that good.
"Gray, good to see that you're awake once again," the Master says gravelly. "I have some bad news about what happened to you, Gray."
Both youths nod slowly and look at him waiting for a continuation.
"Apparently you've been hit by an ancient curse. This is an ancient curse that takes away one's power. This means that, if you were hit by it, you're no longer a mage." Makarov finishes gravelly. Natsu instantly looked at the mage, his mouth hanging open and a warm wind starting to emanate from him, at the same time that his fists burst alight.
Gray's reaction, on the other hand, was to stare at the Master blankly. He honestly didn't seem to have a reaction.
"But what does that mean? Gray's no longer a mage? That's impossible!" Natsu interceded quickly.
"It is true, unfortunately. Although, I think that there is a way out… A one and only one way, from what I was able to understand. Only the Muses' emblems will manage to lift the curse. These emblems are Ancient Artefacts that have been lost a long time ago. However, it is thought that they have returned to their rightful places, in the ancient temples of the Muses."
"Fair enough. Where are they?" Natsu seems to be ready to spring into action.
The Master grabs a small leather-bound book and gives it to Natsu, while seeing that Gray remains slightly apathetic.
"It is said that the emblems only appear to those who need them and who have proven to be worthy of them. In this book you'll find all this information and a little more. It was the most complete I managed to find."
Gray gets up from the bed cautiously, he only has his pants on but his arms are covered in goosebumps due to the chill he is feeling. He never feels cold. When his right leg gives in, Natsu hurries to steady him, grabbing his arm. The fire mage seems to be looking at him with some sympathy as he could notice that this was hard on him. The dark haired one quickly locates a shirt and puts it on.
"I think that, in that case we better do something and go on. Where are the Muses' Temples?" Gray asks in a monotone.
"It says in the book. It's the Buteo Islands."
"That means, a boat…?" Natsu asks, face going slightly green.
"I'm afraid so…"
It doesn't take long before the boys are packing and leaving the guild, heading towards the Buteo Islands.
As they walk they're teasing and taunting each other, as usual and this seems to be the beginning of yet another regular mission but Gray is worried. He doesn't feel fully well in his own skin, it feels too tight, there's something that makes him feel hollow.
But there's something worrying and that's the worse.
He can feel that time is running out.