A/N: I decided to upload this already! Made me write faster when I saw some reviews and follows on that short intro. Thank you! I hope you all will give this a chance. This chapter needs to be done, I don't feel like just writing, "And they rode the train and arrived at Horgo town." I dun like that! So here it is! A 3k+ chapter, mostly without real action yet. Don't worry though for you'll all get lots of those in later chapters.
Also, tell me what you think about Gemini's part. If you guys want I might post the story about that. Probably chapter 2.5 or something. You know, like how the manga inserts filler chapters in the middle of action stuff just to lighten things up. I might do that in this story if you like!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!
2: The Day We Saw God
"This never ending winter started more than a decade ago. We already lost more than half of our population. We can't grow crops and almost all animals die. Only a few are remaining here." He coughed once more. "This must be the curse of the gods."
And the day finally came. The day of their mission!
"Good morning Mira!" Lucy sat on a bar stool in front of the S-class mage.
"Oh, good morning Lucy!" Said Mirajane as she continued to endlessly dry the mugs in her bar.
"Can I have a drink please?"
"Sure! Is pineapple fine?"
"It's perfect." Lucy smiled and Mira went to get her drink. She returned with a glass and set it down in front of her. Lucy thanked her.
"So you and Natsu are going to go do that mission, right?"
Lucy looked up and saw the bartender smiling. So it was indeed approved. "Yep. We leave later at noon."
"Natsu was really excited about that mission. He got really excited when he saw me bring that one down from the S-class board." Mirajane giggled. "He was so cute."
Lucy paled a bit. "S.. S-class?"
"Oh, don't worry. Master thought it could be posted down here." The white haired mage assured but Lucy isn't all that sure about this anymore.
"Why is the train late, ice princess?"
"How should I know, flame brain?"
Lucy sighed as she watched the two press their foreheads together in an intimat-.. no, scratch that. Intimidating manner.
"Why are your eyes all droopy, huh?"
"Why? You're jealous, flame-breath?"
Lucy sighed once again, staying as far as possible from this two idiots who are getting a decent amount of attention already. She was starting to doubt her decision of asking Gray along. Then again, this always happen. Yes, she asked the whole Team Natsu to come after hearing about the request from Mira.
"Are you two fighting?" A dark voice accompanied with a dark look appeared from behind Natsu and Gray.
"HIIEE! E-Erza!" The two automatically had their arm around each other.
"O-Of course not! Best friends don't fight! Right, Natsu?" Gray nudged him.
"Ayee!" Happy-Natsu replied.
Erza smiled strictly. Seriously how does someone can smile and still look strict?
"Good. I don't want to see you two fighting, got it?"
"Aye!" Both boys raised a hand up. The train whistled and soon halted in front of them. Natsu looked at it and began to look sick.
"Blegh.." His cheeks puffed and he had that look already.
"Don't get sick before you get in!" Lucy scolded in unbelief at her friend. Happy laughed and assisted Natsu to their cart.
"Happy, where is the request?" Erza asked after putting Natsu to sleep. Happy pulled at his little green pack and searched in it. Lucy sweat dropped at how long the exceed is taking to find something in a small pack. Just how many things could fit there?
"Here." Happy handed the wrinkled paper to Erza.
"Stop the winter at Horgo town. Winter?" Erza hummed in thought.
"What? How are we supposed to stop winter? It's not possible to change the weather!" Gray began removing his clothes, probably at the thought of winter.
"Don't strip here!" Lucy scolded, feeling embarassed that he's stripping beside her.
Gray looked down at himself, finding his shirt gone. "Oh, shit! When did this happen?" He began searching for his clothes.
"In any case, Gray is right. We couldn't possibly interfere with the seasons. And this might be the reason why no one had been able to finish it yet." Erza handed the paper back to Happy.
"Uhm, I agree. But I also thought that some kind of magic might be causing this." Lucy said, catching Erza's attention.
"What do you mean?" She fixed a look at Lucy.
'Uwaah.. Please don't look at me like that..'
"Ahaha.. Well, Gray can use ice magic right? And Eve can use snow magic."
"Eve?" An image of the sweet blond mage from Blue Pegasus flashed through her mind.
Lucy nodded, knowing Erza is catching on. "So it isn't impossible that the 'winter' is caused by some mage or spell. Defeating the mage, if there is, might be the key to completing this mission."
"That.. was some good thinking, Lucy. I'm so proud of you." Erze smiled proudly.
"Nice thinking Lucy. I didn't know you could do that." Happy praised (?) her.
"What do you mean by that?!" Lucy stretched the cat's cheeks.
Gray finally found his shirt and coat under their seats and put them on. The trip was long and they soon fell asleep. They arrived at the station nearest Horgo late in the afternoon but the trip is still a bit long. They began hiking for an hour more before the sun had completely set, yet they continued hiking for three more hours, using Natsu as a human torch and heater. The trip didn't go quiet of course, with Natsu and Gray's bickering, Erza's lecturing, and Lucy's complaining. Lucy had called for her spirit, Horologium, when her legs were reaching their limit.
"Let's camp here." Erza stopped suddenly at a little clearing. "Natsu, come hunt with me. Lucy, look for firewoods. Gray, set up the whole camp and guard our luggage."
"Yosh! I'm hungrryyyy!" Natsu ran off to the woods with Happy tailing him. Erza sighed and followed, motioning Lucy to follow too for the firewoods. Lucy got out of Horologium and followed, stopping just at the opening of the forest and deciding to gather the little sticks there while Erza went on to hunt. She came back to the camp shortly after, only to find it set nicely. She got to hand it to Gray when it comes to setting camps up. She went to the center and set down the firewoods there while Gray continued to fix some stuff up.
"Open the gate of the Maiden, Virgo!" The bells chimed and the gate to the celestial spirit world opened to reveal the shackled maiden, Virgo. The spirit vowed with a hand over her heart.
"You called, Hime?"
Lucy nodded and pointed at the rest of the camp. "Please help Gray make this temporary camp more comfortable and safe."
Virgo nodded and dived in the ground. Gray's shocked gasp was heard soon after, which could be assumed as Virgo startling him for suddenly appearing from underground.
"Okay, now for this campfire." Lucy thought if she had any spirits with fire. "Ah, that's it!" She pulled out a golden key and raised it to the air.
"Open the gate of the twins! Gemini!" The twin spirits appeared before her, automatically combining and transforming to her clone. Yes, she could now easily call two spirits at once without any problem. Maybe even three if she pushed herself further. But that only calls for desperate measures.
"Need anything, owner?"
Lucy pointed to the firewoods arranged in the middle. "I need you to turn into Natsu and set those firewood on fire."
Gemini then turned into Natsu. "Yosh! I'm all fired up!" Gem-Natsu punched his fist together, making Lucy sweat drop at her spirit.
"Hai, hai. Please don't imitate him anymore." She waved her spirit towards the firewoods and they willingly went to it, not before grinning at her in that Natsu manner.
Now, don't ask why Gemini had Natsu's transformation. As known, this spirit can copy anyone they touched, along with their memories and abilities, even behavior. But they have a limit of two stocks of transformation. Meaning if they would have to copy Gray then they would have to erase Lucy or Natsu's data, whoever was copied first. Back to what I was saying, don't ask why Gemini had Natsu. That is a secret and might be told in another story, as Lucy finds it quite embarassing to share.
"Hey, Lucy!" Lucy blinked from her thoughts and saw a grinning Natsu, or Gem-Natsu. "It's done!" He said with fire lingering in his mouth.
"Alright! Good work Gemini! Thanks, you could go back now." Gem-Natsu nodded before poofing out.
"Hey, was that Natsu talking just now? I'm hungry." Gray came out from one of their tents. Two tents were set up. And she could guess that it was both from Erza's mountain of luggage. At the question, Lucy began to pespire and laugh fakely.
"Ahaha! No. It was just me imitating him!" She did an awkward pose of Natsu with her fist. "Kakaka! K-Karyuu no Tekken!"
Gray looked at her like she was crazy. She doesn't sound like that flame-brain at all but seeing as there is no idiot of a dragon slayer here, he dismissed it as his hunger making him hear things.
"Oh, thanks for sending out that maid spirit of yours. She sure helped me arrange all those stuff, specially those luggage of Erza."
Lucy stopped imitating Natsu. "Eh?" Then she remembered. "Ah! Right! It was nothing."
"Foooodd!"
"Aye!"
The celestial and ice mage turned towards the woods, finding Natsu carrying a huge boar on his back while Happy followed with a fish between his paws. Natsu stopped in the middle where the campfire is and set the boar down before breathing flames on it like a maniac.
"NATSU!" A stone.. no. A small BOULDER was sent flying to the back of Natsu's head, sending him down on the ground.
"Natsu!" Happy landed beside his friend worriedly while Lucy and Gray could only gawk at the size of that piece of Earth thrown at him.
Clanking of boots was heard next. "You shouldn't cook it like that! It needs to be cleaned and gutted first." It's Erza with two deers, a rabbit and a human sized fish!
"Ju.. Just how many people do you guys think are gonna eat? That's alot!" Lucy screeched. To her it looks like that could feed probably around 10 or more people! Maybe 20 if they eat just as much as she does!
"Y-Yeah. I think one deer or boar is enough." Gray agreed. He doesn't eat a few amount but he doesn't think that they should eat that much.
"Hm." Erza hummed proudly. "It seems like I got lucky tonight with my hunting. We shall have a feast tonight then."
"There's no way we could eat all that!"
"Gaaaaahhh! Why did you hit me, Erza?!" Natsu suddenly jumped up, lighting himself on fire. "You want to fight? Come on-!" And he's down again when Erza used the HUGE boar she's carrying as a weapon.
"I'm sorry Natsu. I just don't want you to get sick. We should eat healthily." Erza said with a determined and worried face as she stomped on Natsu's face.
"S-She's saying that while stepping on his face!" Lucy pointed accusingly, looking at Gray, who just looks pale and scared of Erza as usual.
And in the end the all cleaned and gutted the animals, while Natsu is still out cold on the ground where Erza left him. Not even Happy wanted to come near him in fear of receiving the same treatment, so he just happily cleaned his tasty fish. Seeing as they couldn't eat all of it, Erza requipped and sliced the different meat in clean cuts, so that they could pack it with them for tomorrow's food, while Gray molded some shaved ice to preserve the food in their containers. Lucy called out Virgo to have those raw meat stocked in the spirit world. They woke Natsu up after the cleaning and let him do the grilling, which he happily did, letting Erza's earlier bullying just pass for now since he was so hungry. They ate happily after that.
"Tomorrow we'll hike early in the morning." Erza commanded with a smile to which they halheartedly agreed.
"Alright, let's rest now." Erza stood up and headed to the left, normal looking tent. Lucy followed after her. The boys then looked at the right, bulky, tent. Just how could a tent look muscular? Gray didn't remember it looking like that when he set it up. Heading towards it, they opemed the tent and gaped.
"Kaa.."
"Wha.. Where are we supposed to sleep there, Gray?!" Natsu asked incredulously as he stared at all the luggages stuffed inside their tent, including the girls' stuff, meaning Erza's too. He looked to his left where Gray was previously standing, finding him gone and already pushing himself through all these suitcases. He turned to his right and found just Happy's outline there.
"I'm going to sleep with Lucy." Happy said flatly and headed to the other tent.
"Whaa-.. Happy!" Natsu whined at his exceed.
"Jus.. Just stop whining already flame brain! He-Help me here!" Gray's struggling voice echoed from inside and Natsu grudgingly dragged himself inside. After much struggling and some fight with the pesky suitcases, they finally managed to push the stuff further and make a little space for the both of them. No one could possibly sleep on that position. Gladly, they passed out from exhaustion.
The hike the next day started early in the morning. As in early. It's 4 a.m.
"*yawn* I'm still sleepy.. I'm going to go back to sleep, she says." Horologium announced as Lucy pulled her blanket more around her. Beside them is Gray, who have bags under his eyes as he held a couple of ice cubes in his hands to keep him awake, ocassionally rubbing it on his arms, back, and bare chest to soothe his aching muscles. Last night's sleep wasn't really a pleasant one, and he wasn't even sure if that was sleep or he just blacked out. The cramped up space and the bulky suitcases made his mucsles ache and the flame-tard idiot who was snoring flames the whole night made the already hot tent even hotter! Just why was he snoring with flames? The ice mage was literally melting!
On his left is Natsu who was half awake as he dragged himself, beside him is Happy who is flying in a wobbly pattern before he just landed on Natsu's head and decided to nap there. Leading the groups of course is Erza who is wide awake. How couldn't she? She was the one who woke them all up! After an hour they finally got rid of the sleepiness and was able to hike faster. Horologium had long since poofed out. After another hour or walking the temperature started lowering considerably.
"We're getting near, aren't we?" Gray asked, or more like stated, as he began unbuckling his belt.
"Gray, don't strip." Lucy reminded.
"Oh, shit!"
They reached the horizon and a town came to view. Down from where they are, a small town is covered with snow, it seems like a storm is brewing too. From where they are they could already feel the chilling wind.
"That's it. Let's hurry." Erza descended down, and since it was a bit steep, they reached the town in no time. There is a low and poorly made gate that blocks travellers from entering. There is a sign at the entrance, frozen and barely readable, and it read 'Horgo town'.
"Who are you?" A deep voice asked. They all looked to a small peep hole and saw a pair of eyes there.
"We're mages from Fairy Tail. We're here for the request." Erza held up the wrinkled request. A small pause followed before the man spoke again.
"Insignia?"
Erza raised her left arm. Natsu flexed his right arm. Lucy raised her right hand. Gray punched his right chest. Happy showed them his back.
The man hummed and opened the gate.
"Welcome fairy tail mages." The man greeted with a smile, wearing a thick fur coat, a worn scarf and holding a spear.
"Please, follow me." He began walking inside the town. "The mayor is the one who sent the request. He's been sick for awhile now." He paused then turned to them. "I hope you fairy tail mages will be able to stop this winter now."
"Of course." Natsu lit his fist. "We're fairy tail after all!" The rest of Team Natsu smiled and agreed.
The man stared in awe at his hand. "Wow. Fire." He smiled. "I hope that could melt this storm. I really hope it will." He turned again and led them to a white house, or atleast that's how it looks like. Everything here looks white with snow already. The man knocked on the door.
"Mayor, there are mages from fairy tail here."
A short pause then a cough was heard. "Come in."
They came in and saw the old man on his bed, looking pale and weak under his thick coat. "*cough* So fairy tail came. Just to tell you, mages from Mermaid Heels had came here a week ago and they had not returned. Are you still willing to do this?"
They nodded. The old man sighed and took a deep breath. "This never ending winter started more than a decade ago. We already lost more than half of our population. We can't grow crops and almost all animals die. Only a few are remaining here." He coughed once more. "This must be the curse of the gods."
"Curse of the gods?"
"It is the only thing we could think of. There was a time when a group of our men went to hike on the mountains behind this town. The wind got stronger and stronger but they continued, for if they bring back no food, their children will die."
"What happened to them then? Did they return?" Erza pressed on. The mayor continued.
"Just.. two of them. The other one died after a day. I am the only one who survived after." A string of wild coughs erupted in his throat. It sounded bad and the gate man earlier began patting and rubbing his back. On the other hand the team don't look happy at all. This town is near to getting wiped out. Whatever is causing this, it had to be stopped.
Mayor calmed down after awhile, taking deep wheezing breaths. "We.. We saw God.. Up there in the mountains."
That caught everyone's attention. "WHAT?!"
"God?"
"How do you know?"
"Tell us what happened!"
He sighed once more. "Deep in the forest, where the large lake is frozen and even time seems to be still, there was a large cave. The storm and all of this winter is coming out from that cave. Inside, we saw a stunningly beautiful of a woman that she could not be less than of a god. She has a throne made of ice and a flowing coat made from the most elegant of silk. She has eight wings. A big and wide pair at her back, another pair at the sides of her icy blue eyes, one on each of her hands and one on each of her feet."
Gray frowned a bit. "How do you know that she is really a god?"
"The moment we saw her, my troop began dying, their life was sucked away the moment we looked into her glowing eyes. The reason why me and old Henry escaped death must probably be because we are mages. Not exceptional but still mages. You won't miss her location. You will feel the presence of a heavenly being the closer you get. Only death awaits the impure."
A/N: Tell me what you think and also about that Gem-Natsu part. Thanks for reading!