Chapter 2
Natsu woke up early in the morning for his mission, he notice that Happy was still sleeping next to him saying 'fish' ever now and then. Natsu just rolled his eyes at Happy always dreaming of fish, it all he thinks about. Natsu decided to carry Happy to the dining hall to get something to eat. Once their was fish Happy bolted up smelling the fish and flew right to it, while Natsu laugh at Happy. Both ate and then went to the mission board to find something good. "Happy lets do this on it to defeat a group of bandits three towns over." "Aye sir." both of them charge out of the castle to do their mission.
In the forest Romeo is just waking up and notice Lucy is still sleeping, well that should be expected since she was drain from yesterday. Romeo decided to get up and get stuff ready for tomorrow. Romeo left the house and went around back a grab the cart they had and move it to the front, then went to check the runes that they have on it. Both Lucy and Romeo learn how to use runes since it comes in handy. The runes on the cart do three things, first it keeps the stuff on it from falling off, second it keeps anyone from stealing anything from the cart, and third it keeps everything preserved since they will carry food on it. Then Romeo went inside and went to a hidden door on the floor and open it and went down the stairs into a room surrounded by runes. The runes for the room keep everyone except Lucy and Romeo from entering, and keeps everything in the room fresh since they store food in there. Romeo grab some of the meat in their and put it in a bag and then move carry it to the cart. Romeo kept moving stuff to the cart until it was full of meat, fruit, herbs, skins, and stuff that they made. Then Romeo move the cart to the back and put a rune barrier around it to keep it safe and went back inside.
It took Romeo about a hour to do all that and when he went back inside he saw that Lucy was awake. "Morning Lucy, let me get you something to eat." "Morning Romeo and thanks." Lucy was still in bed since she knows better then trying to walk around right now. Romeo quickly got something together for them and sat on the bed next to Lucy and handed her the plate. "So did you get everything ready for tomorrow?" Lucy asked. "Yep everything is ready to go into town tomorrow." Romeo answer. Lucy and Romeo go into town every now and then to trade some of the stuff they got for other supplies, but also to visit since they become friends with the people in town. Both finish their food and Romeo took the plates and put them away to be clean later and rejoin Lucy sitting next to her. "Lucy you starting to recover from it faster." Romeo stated. Lucy just nodded knowing it was true since it only takes her a day to recover, it used to take her three days when they started doing this about two years ago, but she didn't have all the spirits she had now back then. "Yea I think it because of all the training we been doing for years." Lucy said.
Both just enjoy their day staying indoors, Romeo and Lucy would take this time to crave stuff out of wood, manly more arrows and few spare bows which they have many of, and some other things, Lucy would also work on her story a bit. Yes Lucy is a writer, but she doesn't work on it that much.
At the castle Erza and Gray were sparring which Gray was losing, but both had something on their minds. Both were thinking about who these two people are that Natsu told them about yesterday. "Are you thinking about the people Natsu told us about as well?" Gray asked. "Yea, I just can't stop thinking about it, it just how can people like that live around here and we never hear about them before." Erza replied. Gray nodded "Lets go ask Wendy about them since she the one the actually meet them." Gray said and Erza agreed. Both walk over to Wendy's room and knock on the room and waited for Wendy to say come in. Both bowed to her and then asked "Wendy can you tell us about the two people you told Natsu about please." Erza asked nicely. "Of course Erza here come have a seat." Wendy said offering the chairs in the room for them to sit in, which they accepted. Wendy told them the story of them from yesterday, "Do you know what type of magic they use?" Erza asked. "Yes Lucy is a Celestial Mage that can use Star Magic, and Romeo uses Fire Magic." Celestial Mages can use Star Magic, but it just rare since most just use their spirits as shields and weapons so they don't find it important to learn it. "Do you think that they may be a problem in the future Wendy?" Gray asked. "Not unless we do something to them first, I could easily tell if you hurt their family they don't care who you are they will hunt you down and make you pay." Wendy said. Both Gray and Erza nodded understanding since they are the same way. Like when Prince Gajeel came to visit and mess around with Natsu and Gray, then something happen and Gray ended up with a broken arm and Erza was pissed, she didn't care if he was a prince she beat him to a pulp. Both of them thank Wendy and left. "So Erza what should we do now?" Gray asked. "Well they don't seem to be a problem, but when I go into town tomorrow for more cake, I'll asked around to see if I can learn anything new about them. It will be better to know as much as possible before we meet them with Natsu in a few days." Erza answer. Gray just nodded.
The next day both Lucy and Romeo woke up early and got ready, both got dress in a jacket, pants, and combat boot, both had a bow and quiver with a sword hilt sticking out, both also had a hunting daggers on their belt. Lucy had her keys and spirit whip on her belt as well and had her hair in a ponytail. "Ready Romeo?" Lucy asked. "Yep." Romeo said. Both left and grab the cart and started pulling it toward town. It took them about about a hour to get to town and when the enter they headed to their first stop. On the way people would say hello to them and they would smile and wave to them. They stop in front of a building and grab a few things from the cart and enter, they saw a girl with blue hair reading a book. "Morning Levy." Both of them said and Levy turn to them and smiled. Levy is in charge of the magic shop in town since it has tons of books in it, also next door is the library. "Lucy, Romeo how have you been?" she said. "Great." Lucy said walking to the counter and place a basket full of apples in front of her. "Here you go Levy." Levy took a apple and started eating it, Levy loves apples. "Thanks you guys are the best, and Lucy I got some news for you." Lucy was excited "What is it?" Lucy asked. "Well I have a key on it's way that should be here next week." Lucy and Romeo were happy that they were going to get a new friend soon. "Which is it?" "Well here a hint you will be saying 'Open, Gate of the Immortal Bird'" Levy said. "PHOENIX that a rare one your the best Levy!" Lucy shouted. "Lucy what does Phoenix do?" Romeo asked curiously. "I don't know much, it a bird made of fire and does fire attacks, also it can heal allies, but how I'm not sure." Lucy said. "Cool maybe it can teach me some new spells." Romeo said excited. "Maybe, anything else Levy?" Lucy asked. "Well I have some friend tracking down some other keys that I heard about." "Which ones?" "Well their four right now hopeful they find them. One is Loke younger brother actually, another is the spirit of the fox, and the last two are powerful ones, first it's Hydra the water serpent, and Draco the spirit of the Dragons." Lucy and Romeo jaws drop hearing that.
"It would be nice to get Loke younger brother so they could be together, also the others would be nice to have." Lucy said. "I almost forgot here you go Levy, it the next few chapter of my story." Lucy put down a stack of paper on the counter. "Awesome your story is great, I let Mira read what you gave me so far and she fell in love with it." Levy said giggling remembering Mira after reading the story. "Well I hope she like these chapters as well." Lucy said. "I still can' thank you for helping me find more keys, and helping me find those who treat their spirits horrible." Lucy said. Levy is the one who told Lucy about Virgo last master and help her track him down. "It no problem they are living creature as well so they deserve treat well and not like items. Also something been troubling me." Levy said. "Same, I been finding it weird on how hard it starting to get to track down keys, even those that are suppose to be common." Lucy said. "I have to agree lets ask Crux about it." Levy said. Lucy grab her key "Open, Gate of the Southern Cross: Crux" then Crux appeared "What can I do for you Miss Lucy?" "Can you look into why it getting hard to find keys, since they are less Celestial Mages theses days so it should be a bit easier." "Yes one moment please." After a minute "I done researching and I too find it strange, some of the spirits keys don't have masters anymore and haven't had one in years." "So what do you think?" "When one guess is that someone is defeating their masters and then taking their keys and hiding them somewhere, but I'm not sure." "Thanks Crux can you talk to the Spirit King about this, it starting to worry me and maybe he will know." Lucy said. "Yes I find that is the best thing to do now since I too am worried." Crux said and went back. "Well hopefully we find out soon." Lucy said, both Romeo and Levy nodded.
"Well we need to visit some other places Levy see you later." Lucy said waving. "See you both later." Levy said and started reading Lucy newest chapters. They pulled the cart to another building, both once again grab something off the cart and enter. They enter and both were surround by kids smiling. "Lucy, Romeo, you guys came to visit us!" One of the kids said. Then two people enter the room "Well are you going to let them through or make them stand their all day." one of them said and the kids move. "Hey Mira, Lisanna how are you two doing?" Mira and Lisanna run the orphanage in town. "Fine how about you two?" Mira ask. "Good we just finish talking to Levy, I gave her the latest chapters of my story and she told me about getting a new key soon." Lucy said excited. Mira beamed after hearing about the newest chapters "I can't wait to read them." Mira said. Lucy then gave her a basket full of berries, "Well until she done this should keep you happy." Lucy said. Mira loves berries it the only thing that she doesn't share with anyone. Romeo gave Lisanna some herbs, fruit, meat, and some of the animal skins to make clothes, and blankets for the kids with. "Thanks you guys are a big help." Lisanna said take the stuff to the other room. "No problem." Romeo said grinning. "So do you guys want to see what else we brought?" Romeo said to the kids who eyes brighten like the stars. Lucy, Romeo, Mira, and Lisanna laugh at the kids. Lucy and Romeo went back and grab some of the wood carvings they made and handed them to the kids to look at. After a hour they traded some stuff with the kids, and soon they left and went to a few other places to trade and were going to head back.
Erza was in leaving the store that she just got a cake from and surprise that she didn't find much about Lucy and Romeo. Erza then notice two people pulling a cart that she hasn't seen before and after seeing the weapons and that they look like who Wendy describe she believe it was them. Erza decided to follow them for a bit to see what she can learn. Erza quickly saw that they were leaving town then a few people stop them.
"Hey you two why don't you hand over the cart and no one will get hurt." One of the men said. "How about you walk away before you get hurt." Lucy said pulling out Loke key. "Look boys a Celestial Mage, you had us worry for a second. Everyone knows that Celestial Mages are the weakest because their spirits are useless tools that can't do much." One of them said laughing. They didn't know that they just dug their graves put themselves in it and started burying themselves. Lucy and Romeo had demonic auras around them and even more all of Lucy keys had a demonic aura around themselves as the spirits were pissed off. Erza could see this and to tell the truth she was scared right now of Lucy and Romeo. Lucy put her key back and grab the key ring and held it out. "Open the Gates of these keys." Lucy said and all her spirits were summon and were ready to kill with demonic auras around them with a piss off look. Every spirit was getting a attack ready and those who can't attack was giving their energy to those who can, ready everyone attack at once "Unison Raid" they all shouted and a massive attack hit them all. All of the men were on the ground barely alive, Aquarius went up to them "The only reason your alive is because we want you to give a message to everyone, we spirits are not weak unless tools, we are strong and powerful and should be feared." Lucy went up to them "Also tell everyone that if they mistreat spirits I will hunt them down, free the spirit from them and then when I'm done with them they are going to wish I killed them." Lucy said with a evil voice. Aquarius then send a wave to wash them to the side of the street then all the spirits went back to the Spirit World.
After that was done Erza watch was Lucy and Romeo walk into the forest and decided it not best to follow them right now and headed back to the castle. She enter and went to find Gray to tell him about what she saw, she found him walking around the castle trying to kill time. "Gray there you are." Erza said. "Erza did something happen?" Gray asked. "No, but I did see them when I was in town, and found out that if you insult the spirits you most likely will be killed." Erza said. "How did you find that out?" Gray asked and Erza told him what she saw, Gray gulped and made five mental notes not do say anything bad about her spirits, so encase he forgot one the other four would remind him. "So what should we do now?" Gray asked. "Well we wait for Natsu to return." Erza said and Gray just sigh and agreed.
Lucy and Romeo got back to their house and unload the cart and move it back and put up a rune barrier. When both enter Romeo decided he was going to the river near by to take a bath. They have part of the river covered so no one can see them, and Lucy decided to go as well. Both grab some clothes and went to the river and put up a sheet to separate them and each took a bath. After awhile both of them were done and headed back to the house. When they enter Loke appeared. "Hey Lucy, Romeo I came with a message from the Spirit King." Loke said. Both Lucy and Romeo payed attention. "He agrees with your concern and is going to look into this, normal we would understand if it was the golden keys, put some that are not even combat spirits keys are missing. So he ask you to keep looking for the other keys, and it more of a rescue mission right now to keep them for harms way. Hopefully we find something out soon." Loke said. Both Lucy and Romeo nodded and were worried, thinking who would go after all the spirits. "Loke can their keys be destroyed?" Romeo asked. "No to destroy a key you have to kill the spirit and their is only two ways to do that, one is for their life force to be drain to zero in the human world, but all spirits can close their own gates, or for the stars that give them strength die which has never happen before." Romeo sigh in relief knowing what he was thinking couldn't happen. "Well I going to go back and help try to find out what is happening." and with that he disappear.
"No much we can do right now Romeo hopefully we can get as many keys as we can to keep them safe." Lucy said. "Yeah your right, lucky we about to get a new member to our family and hopefully the four Levy said she tracking." Romeo said. "Agreed, well lets go to bed it getting late, we can hunt a bit tomorrow and then train." Lucy said with a yawn at the end. Both got into bed and slowly fell asleep but with the thought of who is targeting the spirits on their minds.