Lucy grimaced as she stepped aboard the train station platform. "Don't look back, Lucy." She whispered to herself, desperately hoping she would listen to herself. "Don't look back, don't turn around, don't look back." She continued this mantra, keeping her head down and a frim grip on her luggage. "Don't look back, don't turn around, don't-" She paused.
"Kinana?" She said this a bit louder than she had intended and the violet haired girl raised her head to smile at the blonde. She stood bundled against the morning chill with a wrapped parcel in her hands.
"Good morning Lucy." She said easily. "It seems I was right, hm? It's very like you to try and spare our and your own feelings by not saying goodbye. But I'm sure that's not helping much, hm?"
Lucy smiled sadly as she approached the girl. "How is it in only one month you came to know me so well?" To this the younger girl shrugged. "Who knows? But you're rather easy to read in any case." The girl's smile widened against her pained face. "In any case, you've got a train to catch and I've got a package with your name on it."
She lifted said package and held it out to the blonde as she said this, Lucy dropping her luggage to take the box in her hands. She proceded to rip the paper from the box and open it, revealing the faint gleam of a silver gate key. A shaky smile lit her face when she recognised the curled emblem on it's surface.
Draco, the dragon.
Tears filled her mocha eyes as she lifted the unusually warm silver into her hands. "Where did you get this?" She asked incredilously. "Draco is one of the rarest, and most powerful of the silver gate keys. His strength could likely rival Loke's."
Kinana smiled. "I knew you would like it." She said softly before grinning widely and lifting the blonde's luggage back into her hands. "Now you need to get your butt on that train. Don't talk to strangers, or anyone stranger than Fairy Tail, that is... actually, that's a bad idea, just don't talk to strangers."
Lucy laughed lightly as the smaller girl pulled her onto the train. "Alright mom," She joked. "Anything else?"
"Come back safe." This was spoken with no sense of teasing, and filled with utter sincereity. To finish the gesture, Kinana raised her right hand and turned it so the back of her hand faced forward, curling her last three fingers to make an L. "Come back soon."
Lucy copied the gesture and smiled. "Of course. I'll be back in no time. I'm all fired up, after all!"
Or so she'd said... the minuted she settled herself in her compartment she was conked out, off into dreams of better days filled with giant grins, silly fights, and strawberry cake.
After a while the train's whistle, alerting passengers that they were nearing the end of the tracks, roused our Celestial mage from her slumber. Blinking her eyes to rid them of the lingering drowsiness she gathered her things and exitted the train, excited to see that they had indeed reached the end of the line. Nothing but forest for the rest of the way.
Nodding her aproval of her surroundings, the blonde began her trek into the forest. At first glance the woods looked ominous and foreboding whereas the reality was something surprising. The shrubbery was neat and the pathways clear, slmost if people took great care to maintain them. Her wonder of the forest made her unaware to the rustles in the bushes around her.
Without warning a hand shot out from behind her, latching over her mouth. Her eyes widened and she struggled, desperately trashing and kicking against her attacker. The hand, however, remained stationary. Running out of options, the blonde did the one thing she dreaded most.
She licked him.
Her attacker recoiled and spewed profanities in a tongue she didn't recognise and in an instant more of them surrounded her. Now able to face her pursuers she noted their skin was a much darker shade than her own and smothered with intricate clay designs. Their eyes were all ebony black, their matching hair held in intricate braids and woven with stones and beads.
Well, this was something new.
"Uh," She stammered. "Hi? My name's, uh, Lucy. You guys don't happen to speak Fiorian... do you?"
"Lusee?" One of them asked. "Lusee? Fioreen?" He turned back to discuss things with his friends. It was then she took notice that most of them only sported wraparoud skirty things for clothes. Their feet were even bare.
Eventually they reached some conclusion and turned to her. "You follow." That said they turned away, and she hastened to follow. They stepped through the woods with ease, barely making a sound whereas she stomped like an elephant to keep up.
With time they reached a large wall. If she hadn't been looking for it, she would've passed it off as more forest. Trees came to entwine with each other, weaving an impenetrable, and more importantly, undetectable, barrier. One of the men strode forward and placed his palm against a bare spot on one of the tree trunks. He chanted something and the trunk split enough for them to slide through, though Lucy's luggage had a harder time.
Once inside, Lucy gasped as what she saw. All around her spread a prosperous village filled with laughing children and smiling people. Most of the men were dressed in the same way as though she walked with, whereas the women wore bikini tops as well as the wrap, bracelets and necklaces gracing their necks and wrists. Beads and feathers were inwoven in the hair of everyone.
She was directed past this, though, and herded towards one of the larger hut-like structures. She recieved strange looks from the villager, but they seemed more pleasently curious than defensively cautious. The material that covered the hut's opening was pushied aside ad she was hastened inside.
Scrolls and books covered the floor and the men called out in the tongue she did not recognise. A response was made as an elder woman stood from behind a screen and made her way towards them. Her eyes were kind and wise, her hair pulled back and fastened with large feathers. Her bikini top features long fringe than rached her naval and hung with beads.
She took one look at Lucy and smiled. "You are Lucy?" Her Fiorian was rough but understandable. When the blonde nodded the woman shooed the men away and face her properly, sizing her up and nodding in approval. "I am Natia. Welcome to Village of Sugara."
"Uh, okay. Hi Natia. May I ask why I'm here?" Lucy was uncertain of this woman, what with being almost kidnapped by unknown men in the forest and all.
"You are here because my people hear your thoughts, Lucy. You wish be stronger? We make you stronger."
"I'm sorry?" Lucy asked. "You'll train me? But, wait. How'd you know I came here to train?"
"I see heart." Natia responded, pointing to her chest. "Your heart want be strong. So we make it strong. Sugara is Goddess of imeasurable strength. With her, you be strong. You are... mage. Yes?"
Lucy nodded. "Yes, I am. A Celestial Spirit Mage."
"Good." Natia said. "You be welcome here. Village magic special. I teach you."
"Oh," Lucy smiled. "Well thank you."
Natia nodded and smiled. "Good. You now child of village, come with me, we change your clothes." The blonde obeyed hesitantly as she was ushered behind the screen and handed a bundle of clothing. "Change, child. These clothes much better for forest."
Lucy obeyed once more, changing her tube top and vest for a cobalt bikini top with fringe hung with gold and silver beads that surprisingly covered more than you'd imagine. Her blue skirt was exchanged for a pair of loose cotton shorts that reached mid-thigh and a matching cobalt wrap that flowed and reached her mid-shin. SHe fastened her belt around her waist, keys and whip still fastened securly. She draped Natsu's scarf back around her shoulders and re-fastened the silver gauntlet onto her hand and wrist, Gray's necklace ever present on her neck.
She stepped out from behind the screen and was bombarded by small children clutching clay bowls of tinted clay. They dipped their fingers in the clay and ran them along her skin, drawing out designs similar to those she had seen on most members of the village. Once they were done the clay bowl were set down and replaced with handfuls of feathers and beads.
The eldest came behind the blonde, knotting her hair into the intricate designs of the village, holding her hand out for feathers and beads the younger one supplied them eagerly. With one last feather the girl came back around and smiled, calling out for Natia. The elder came back inside and gave the blonde a pleased look.
"Welcome to Sugara, Lucy."