~Year X785~
~Lucy's dream~
Lucy stood on the beach of a tropical island. The whole place was silent, not even the leaves on the tees rustled. There was no breeze and it was stiflingly hot. Lucy looked around, and found that Wendy, Carla, Happy and Pantherlily were standing on the beach a few metres from her. Lucy smiled as she saw her friends, and tried to call out to them. But her voice caught in her throat, and she couldn't even make a sound.
Wendy and the three Exceed suddenly turned to their left, gasping in fear. Lucy followed them and saw the huge black dragon, with blue markings. The three exceeds hurriedly grabbed Wendy, and flew off. Trying to escape. The blonde girl was left standing frozen on the beach, unable to move as the dragon roared and set off after her friends. Lucy wanted to do something, anything, to help, but she couldn't move.
Acnologia's claws swept through the air. Happy was knocked unconscious and he plummeted into the ocean. The surface of the water calmed and Happy resurfaced, face down. Lucy tried again to move, to swim out and grab Happy, but she couldn't. Carla screamed as her wing was clipped by a claw. She boosted her speed, trying to get away. Wendy turned her head, and used her 'Roar of the Sky Dragon' but it had no effect on the beast. Pantherlily had managed to grab Happy, who was unconscious, and flew back up to Wendy and Carla.
The four of them continued their flight, dodging the claws of the Dragon. They knew it was only playing with them. If Acnologia had wanted to, they could have been dead within a heartbeat. Pantherlily was knocked out of the sky, and he and Happy tumbled down into the water, unconscious. Now it was only Carla and Wendy against the black dragon.
An ear shattering roar split the air. Not a breath attack, but a roar of anger and bloodlust, of wanting to kill and tear bodies apart. And that was just what Acnologia did. He dived down and swallowed the two male exceeds. Wendy, Lucy and Carla screamed in anguish at the loss of their friends. Carla put on a burst of speed, trying her hardest to outrun the beast behind her.
Acnologia seemed to become bored of the chase. He opened his maw and prepared for a breath attack. A dark beam shot from his mouth, engulfing Carla and Wendy. The two of them plummeted towards the water, unconscious. But they didn't hit the water; Acnologia had grabbed them in his mouth.
"WENDY! CHARLA!" Lucy screamed as the great beast swallowed them.
~End Lucy's dream~
Lucy woke up crying and covered in sweat. Her dream vivid in her mind. Lucy curled herself into a ball, and began shaking; she hated the nightmares with Wendy the most. Wendy and Cana were the most frequent in her nightmares, closely followed by Natsu, Erza and Gray. After Lucy calmed down enough, she decided to write a letter to her mother.
Dear Mother
It's been six months now. Six lonely months. My house seems so empty now. I miss them all so much. The nightmares aren't helping either. I get them almost every night now. It was Wendy again last night. Damn, I'm crying again just thinking about her. Going down to Hargeon with Romeo is the only thing that helps calm me down, I can't do that today though. Jet and Droy are trying to help me too. We go on missions together sometimes. It's good to have the company. I really don't like solo missions; they only remind me of how lonely I am, and how much I miss my team mates. Macao told me I should form a team with some of the other members, but I just can do it. It feels to wrong to go on missions without them. I can't even write their names without crying. Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy. I miss all of them. Every single one. I have to go now mama, my tears are going to make the ink run.
I love you mama.
From Lucy.
Lucy put down her pen and wiped away her tears. She then carefully sealed the letter into and envelope and put it with the rest of her letters. Lucy looked at her calendar. It was nearly the end of the month, but Lucy already had the next two months worth of rent payed due to her solo missions. Lucy sighed and got up, heading to her wardrobe to find some suitable training clothes. She wasn't really going training, well, not today anyway. Today, she and Romeo were going to, well, put on a show! They did this about once a week. Everyone had been so down lately, that Lucy had decided to start doing things to get people to laugh again. Sometimes it was pranks, and other times, they had done fireworks, and just a lot of random stuff to get people to laugh. She had started about a month after the Tenroujima groups' disappearance and Romeo had joined her after a couple of weeks.
Once Lucy was dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and a bright green t-shirt, she headed towards the tree where she and Romeo usually met up. When Lucy arrived, Romeo was already waiting, a calico bag in hand.
"Ready Romeo?" Lucy asked as they high-fived.
"Of course Lucy-nee!" Romeo grinned and held up the bag. "This is going to be awesome!" Lucy giggled; this was just what she needed to get her mind off her loneliness. She and Romeo then snuck into the guild, entering through the back so that they wouldn't be noticed. The two of them then snuck over to the back of the stage. Lucky for them the curtains were closed, so they could set up without people finding out. They set up a miniature stage for a puppet show. Once the mini stage was set up, they began to sort out the puppets. Lucy and Romeo had spent almost a week working on the script, and were eager to perform it for everyone after all their hard work.
Once everything was all set up, Lucy and Romeo snuck away from the stage. Lucy had used a simple charm on the puppets to have them perform their parts without her needing to actually operate them. Romeo grabbed two microphones and handed one of them to Lucy. The two of them then hid their microphones, and walked calm as could be away from the stage and to their positions within the guildhall. Lucy was sitting in a darkened corner, and Romeo was sitting at the bar.
The lights in the guild dimmed slightly, as one of the puppets operated the switches, and turned the spotlights onto the big stage. Everyone in the guild quieted down, as they saw the stag lit up. Many questioned what was going on, and some asked if it was Lucy and Romeo's doing. The puppet then pulled the curtains on the stage back, to reveal the mini stage. A green troll puppet then walked up to the front of the stage.
"Welcome!" Lucy said in a squeaky, mouse-like voice as the troll-like puppet waved. "To the show!"
The troll then walked up the edge of the mini stage and yanked the curtains open. On the mini stage were six puppets, not including the one who had operated the stage curtains and lights. The first was the green troll puppet, next was a young girl with long black hair, in a yellow sun dress, third was an old man, wearing white robes with white hair and long beard, he also carried a staff. Fourth, was a young man with a sword in his hand, he was clothed in black, and had light mouse brown hair. The last two puppets were twins; both males had the same short blonde hair, and were wearing dark blue pants with a bright red shirt.
The six of them bowed and then disappeared. The twin puppets then came back out and began to clean. They started acting out a skewed version of Cinderella. The two twins were mistreated, by their stepbrother, who was the male with the sword. The old man was the evil step father, and the troll was their fairy god-father. When the twins arrived at the castle to meet the princess, they found that she had run away.
"Oh no! The princess had run away!" Romeo said putting on a deep voice, as five of the puppets ran around the stage looking for her. One of the guild members then spotted the princess under a nearby table.
"There she is!" They called out to the puppets on the stage. The five puppets then all ran around the guild hall, zipping between people's legs as they searched for their princess. A lot of guild members shouted out random and confusing things, and the whole scene quickly dissolved into chaos. After a while all the puppets ended up back on stage and everybody calmed down to watch the end.
"Who do you choose?" Lucy said in the trolls squeaky mouse voice as the troll gestured to the three young males that the princess could choose form. The princess studied the three males before walking over to the troll.
"I choose Joshua!" Romeo said, doing his best imitation of a princess voice. All the puppets then groaned and complained about how Joshua wasn't even a part of the play. The puppet which had opened the curtains and operated the lights then stepped out onto the stage and ran to his princess. He was wearing green pants, and a grey top, his hair was a messy silver colour. The two puppets then hugged, and the troll puppet closed the mini stages curtains, so that it was the only puppet visible.
"Thank you all for watching!" Lucy squeaked out, as the seven puppets walked to the front of the stage to take a bow. The guild hall erupted in cheers, as Lucy and Romeo made their way to the stage to pack everything up. The two of them quickly packed everything away, and then left the guildhall.
"Lucy-nee, can we get some ice-cream now?" Romeo asked. Lucy laughed and ruffled his hair then knelt down with her back facing him.
"Jump on Romeo, were going for ice-cream!" Romeo jumped up onto Lucy's back and the two of them headed off laughing to get ice-cream. Macao and several other guild members smiled as the two left.
"Lucy's a good kid." Macao said, smiling.
"Yeah, she's done so much for us in these past six months." Wakaba replied, as the two men went back to their drinking.
AN: Sorry if the nightmare was rubbish, I've never had one, so I had nothing to base it off.
Originally this wasn't going to be a chapter, but I needed to put something in, because I didn't like the idea of just skipping a whole year. So it's kind of a 'how Lucy is coping' chapter.
