Chapter 2 – The Journey
Hello everyone, I am truly sorry for not uploading anytime soon. It's finally summer and I was on a very long vacation and unable to write or post anything. And because it has been so long since the last chapter, I decided to make this one special and basically put two chapters into one very long one! I hope you enjoy the story as it took me forever to write this.
Lucy is sitting in the train with Plue on her lap, she is looking out of the window while petting Plue. The sky had a beautiful blue color, the clouds were as fluffy as ever and the sun was shining down upon the land of Fiore. Lucy decides to take another good look at the job that she choose.
"Isn't this great Plue, I found a really good job, it has a pretty good pay especially now that I'm doing this solo and it isn't too easy or too hard which is pretty good cause then I can get some training done during the mission. I'm so excited! Not to mention that this job is practically made for me, they are requesting a Celestial mage, it's as if this was fate." Lucy said with a big grin on her face.
"Puunn Puun" replies Plue.
"But I've never heard of this Sotrial Town, well it is pretty far away so no wonder I don't recognise it" Lucy says.
After about 4 hours of traveling with the train, Lucy finally arrives at her destination; Sotrial Town. She takes a good look at the town, it's quite pretty, colorful and peaceful. Although it was very small compared to Magnolia, there were still a lot of people roaming the streets. Lucy makes her way into town, exploring the friendly atmosphere, she finds a park nearby to rest a bit after that exhausting train ride. The park was very beautiful, so many different flower types and a huge majestic water fountain in the middle. Lucy makes her way to a tree on top of a rather elevated area of the park, almost like a small hill within. Sitting under the tree, Lucy takes a look around the park, the happy people walking around, children running around playing and the birds chirping. It was such a peaceful moment for her, unlike where in Fairy Tail there would be a fight every ten minutes. A fresh breeze of wind blows across the area, Lucy's eyes are slowly starting to close, with each breath she takes the more relaxed she becomes.
Suddenly Lucy is awoken by a girl; she had black long hair, was around Lucy's age maybe a few years older, had a weird grin on her face and was a bit taller compared to Lucy.
"Hey newcomer what are ya doing here in Sotrial Town? I pretty much know everyone around here, but I've never seen you around here" said the girl with curiosity and a kind smile.
"I fell asleep didn't I? Anyway… yeah I am new to this area here, I'm actually on a job request, I'm supposed to help out some villagers with a beast problem near the woods here. And who are you if I may ask?" Lucy said with a smile.
"My name is Elvira and what's yours?" Elvira asks.
"My name is Lucy, nice to meet you Elvira" Lucy replied.
Elvira decided to show Lucy around town because Lucy wasn't fond of the towns areas yet, and it wouldn't take as long as it would if Lucy went to explore it by herself. After several hours of exploring and talking, it had gotten quite dark, so Lucy asked Elvira if there were any hotels in Sotrial Town, mainly because Lucy didn't have a place to stay and she still needed to go do that job.
Lucy checks into a nearby hotel but only for the night. She doesn't want to waste too much time on a job with such a tight schedule she had thought out during the long train ride. Lucy looks at the job one more time;
" Ok… so these villagers want me to get rid of some vicious beasts lurking around and some rogue mages near the woods, hmmm… doesn't seem too challenging but the pay is amazing 120,000 jewels. I could pay my rent and still have some left over money." Lucy said to herself with a big smile.
As Lucy was lying on her bed, looking out at the sky and lost in her own thoughts again, a wild Virgo appears out of nowhere.
"Princess, time for punishment?" Virgo asks as she usually does.
Lucy doesn't even notice Virgo. She was just staring into the sky, the beautiful night sky, and the shiny stars, but she wasn't just staring out to nowhere, she was mostly wondering about Fairy Tail. What are her friends doing right now? Maybe she shouldn't have left off without letting the others know, did anyone crash at her place yet?
Virgo was still waiting for Lucy to say something, she leans over very close to Lucy and once again says "Punishment time?"
Lucy jumped up, causing her to fall of the bed and leaving her on the floor with her heart thumping like crazy. She never expected Virgo to scare the life out of her, she didn't even notice Virgo.
"Virgo! Don't do something like that ever again; I almost got a heart attack!" Lucy said furiously.
"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you, punishment, princess?" Virgo asks with a small grin on her face.
Lucy got back up from the floor with her normal heart rate again and sat back down on her bed.
"So why did you come here Virgo, I didn't summon you, did something happen? Lucy asked.
"No, nothing happened, I just came here to visit you again and to also warn you that I feel an evil presence lurking around in this town." Virgo replied.
"An evil presence? How do you know that they might be here?" Lucy asked with curiosity.
"There is something evil here, I know they are here because I feel some kind of disturbance in this town… something about this town doesn't feel right. I just wanted to let you know and that you should watch your back princess, maybe that evil presence could be after you" Virgo said with a creepy smile.
Lucy felt the chills go down her spine, which made her shiver a bit.
"Thanks for the warning Virgo, you can go home now." Lucy said still with a creepy feeling.
"No princess, I will stay here and protect you from this evil presence" Virgo said with confidence.
"It's okay Virgo, you can trust me and you know I can take care of myself, if anything happens I can always call you guys, so go back home and rest, I will probably be calling you tomorrow." Lucy said with a smile.
"Very well princess, have a good night then." Virgo said as she went back into the spirit world.
After Virgo left, Lucy was still creeped out. She changed into her pajamas and went to sleep, but before she went to her bed she saw a shadowy figure dash past her hotel window. Lucy decided to ignore it and went to sleep.
Morning finally arrived and Lucy was ready and very excited to head out to the job. She changed her clothes and headed out with the job request in one hand and Plue in the other hand.
"Hmm… now where is Mallenkeid Forest? I guess I will just ask some people for directions." Lucy said.
After a few minutes of wandering around, Lucy finally arrived at the forest. As she walked into the forest she could already hear weird noises coming from within, wolves howling, the bushes rustling and the trees cracking. But that didn't worry Lucy too much. After some time Lucy finally arrived in a small village that was located inside the forest, the first thing she noticed was that no one was outside or even in the village. That seemed pretty odd. Suddenly out of nowhere a vicious beast stands not too far in front of Lucy. The beast was twice as tall as Lucy; it had purple skin, razor sharp teeth and was similar looking to a lizard. Lucy quickly summoned Taurus who was admiring Lucy at first and then shot the beast into the sky.
"Thanks Taurus, you can go back now" Lucy said.
Right after Taurus left, many of the villagers came out running to Lucy.
"Are you a Celestial mage from Fairy Tail?" asked a man with a long beard.
"Yes, I am from Fairy Tail and I'm here for a job, may I ask who you are?" Lucy asked.
"My name is Desmond and I am the Chief of this little Village. We have been having some problems lately with vicious beasts as you have seen just now and some rouge mages, they keep coming back and threatening us, stealing the only things we have. So I sent out a request to Fairy Tail." Desmond Replied.
"Well here I am. I guess I will start getting rid of those beasts then" Lucy said.
"Thank you so much, you seem to be very strong, taking out that beast with only one hit. Did you come here by yourself or are more Fairy Tail mages coming along?" Desmond said with a smile.
"You don't have to thank me just yet, and yes I did come here alone." Lucy answered with a smile and a lot of confidence.
After some talking Lucy went to out deeper into the forest to see where the beasts were lurking around. She found the beasts quite easily especially since they leave behind such big foot prints. Lucy called out Virgo and Loke so they could help get rid of the beasts. After a short battle, Lucy with her whip and Virgo and Loke, they got rid of the beasts, causing fear and havoc. Lucy was already doing some minor training, increasing her stamina by a bit; keeping two zodiac spirits gates open simultaneously.
"Okay Lucy, we got rid of those beats so we will be heading back to the spirit world then." Loke said.
"No don't go back yet, both of you stay here for a little while longer, I want to start training as soon as possible. By keeping both of you here I can increase my stamina and my magic." Lucy said while panting a bit after the tiring fight against the beasts of the woods.
"As you wish princess, but don't overexert yourself." Virgo said.
"Yeah, don't worry." Lucy said with a smile.
Lucy and her spirits made their way back to the village. Desmond was talking to his fellow villagers when he was surprised to see Lucy back so soon and even with her spirits.
"Ok, we got rid of the beasts; they won't be coming back anymore. Now we just have to get those mages." Lucy said with a smirk.
"Well the mages usually come at night, so I think it would be best if you stayed her for the night and waited for them. The best place to watch above the village it on the tall tree branches. And here is a black cloak, it's a magic item; it makes it harder for you to be detected or even sensed by other mages." Desmond said with a bright smile.
"Oh, that's very helpful. Thanks for the cloak, I guess I'll be up on the tree there watching out for the mages." Lucy said as putting on the snazzy cloak.
Lucy took out her whip and swung up to the branch, Virgo and Loke followed her to the top. After a few minutes Lucy sat there leaning against the tree, panting and feeling very exhausted.
"Lucy, you shouldn't overexert yourself, we're taking up quite a lot of your magic. You should close one of our gates." Loke said a bit worried.
"No its ok, this is for training, I can increase a lot of my magic and my magic capacity as well as increasing my stamina, don't worry I'll be fine." Lucy said calmly.
"Princess, I feel the evil presence nearby, it's somewhere here in the forest." Virgo said.
"Well when they come for us or when we find them we can take them out" Lucy said while bumping her fist into her other hand.
After a few and short hours of waiting in the night the mages finally appeared, there were only three but they made a whole lot of ruckus. Lucy looked at Loke and Virgo and gave them a nod, they jumped down to the ground with the element of surprise, or so they thought.
The three mages turned to Lucy and her spirits, they were all wearing cloaks, red, blue and black. The man with the black cloak was standing in the middle, as well as wearing a mask , he must be the leader. The man in the blue cloak was bald but had a brown long beard and moustache covering most of his face. The man in the red cloak had short black spiky hair and a scar across his right eye.
"We have been waiting for you." said the man with the mask.
"It's time to end this, once we are finished you won't be terrorizing these villagers anymore!" Lucy said with a serious tone.
"No, no, no… you got it all wrong sweetie, we're not here for the villagers, we've been waiting for you this whole time. And now it's time to end this conversation!" replied the man with a amusing tone.
"Grab her!" he called out to the other two mages.
The men quickly and swiftly jumped into action. Running towards Lucy at a fast pace the man in blue, charged in with a metal rod that seemed to be running electricity through it, loke quickly jumped in and gave him a good punch to face. Meanwhile the man in red had nothing but his fists, which were covered with white gloves. He doesn't seem to have any magic abilities, he must be skilled in hand to hand combat or other martial arts. Or so they had thought at least for now. Virgo leaps in front and uses her magic to dig a hole beneath the man, taking the fight away from Lucy and continuing a few meters away. The leader decides to take matter into his own hands and starts to head for Lucy. Lucy as ever prepared to fight with her whip grabs the man by his foot and sweeps him away from the ground. The battle continues, as the men are very good and skilled, but Lucy and the spirits manage to keep up with them. It seems that Virgo had managed to defeat the man in red, as he lay there on the floor, probably unconscious. Loke was still fighting with the man in blue, it was a tough battle as Loke has to dodge his attacks from his electric rod, or he will be in a even bigger disadvantage. Lucy was still fighting with the masked man, she was barely keeping up, she was already panting a lot, she looked very tired… as if something was draining her powers. The masked man starts to laugh a bit;
"Can't keep up can you? Just give up now, and make it easier for everyone!" says the man with amusement.
"Never, I will keep fighting until my last breathe!" Lucy replies with a very furious tone.
All of a sudden Lucy gets a boost of strength and confidence and hits the masked man with a powerful blow, that launches him a few meters away from the main battle. Lucy tries to quickly catch her breath, thinking she might have time since the masked man is far away from her, she hears a furious battle cry and sees that the masked man has somehow managed to get behind her, Lucy sees him jumping right at her, with his hands stuck together above his head about to be hammered down on her.
Even Loke didn't see the man behind Lucy before it was too late. Loke is running toward her screaming her name trying to warn her. But thankfully Virgo makes it in time and gives the man a powerful kick to the face, so hard that the man is pushed back from the force and his mask had been broken. He quickly covers his face with his hands before anyone could see and runs a few steps away.
Suddenly Loke gets hit by the electrified metal rod, right in the back. He makes a face of agony as he is disappearing back into the spirit world. Lucy and Virgo were both shocked due to it happening so quickly. Virgo goes on running toward the man in blue, keeping him distracted so Lucy could catch her breath and continue. Out of nowhere the man in the red cloak gets back up, take off his gloves as he reveals his purple fingertips, and very purple veins. He smirks at Lucy and launches himself towards her, Lucy unaware of the situation gets punched right in the stomach with a powerful hit, causing her to cough up a little blood and putting her in severe pain and shock. Lucy looks down to her stomach, as the is a very purple spot, which had started to spread across her body, slowly numbing these parts. It seems to be some kind of magic poison, making her even weaker. Lucy now almost unable to move was hoping to be able to grab her keys and summon more spirits to help her out.
Virgo saw how Lucy was struggling, barely able to stand up, Virgo decided it was time to end it all before it gets worse, she grabs the man in blue and throws him across to the man in red, hitting each other and dropping to the floor, Virgo used her magic to trap the two men into a rock hold, they were no longer able to move. Suddenly the man with the now broken mask grabs the electrified metal pole and strikes Virgo with it, she starts to vaporize, just like Loke. Lucy managed to stand up, while most of her body was already full of the poison, her legs and now almost her arms were covered in purple, her veins slowly turning purple, going down towards the hands and almost the face. Lucy looks up and sees Virgo almost in tears and apologizing to Lucy that she couldn't help her.
Lucy takes one deep breath, shaking she takes all her anger and turns it into her last power move. She grabs the key of Taurus and shouts;
"Gate of the Golden Bull, I open the-"
Lucy gets interrupted, she wasn't able to finish the sentence, a sword struck her right in the stomach. She was standing still, in shock, everything went silent, she could only hear the drops of blood from the sword, dripping down to the floor, "drip, drop". Her mouth opens in the act of coughing, she spews out lots of blood. She couldn't comprehend what has happened, as blood was flowing out of the sides of her mouth, she drops her key and falls to the floor. She was covered in a puddle of her own blood. Lucy wasn't moving anymore, the poison had gotten to her, she was barely able to keep her eyes open, the last thing she saw before passing out was the man taking off the broken mask, and revealing himself as no man, but the woman Elvira.
Elvira had a big evil grin on her face, looking at Lucy in agony and near death, she says;
"We meet again Lucy… now I finally got you!"
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. And don't worry there is gonna be more coming soon, I'll try to upload something at least once every week. Please leave a review to help me out, I would love to get some suggestions, critics and more! You can also PM me to give me your ideas and opinions, as I have no idea how to continue this! Thank you for reading!