Chapter 2: Arcane

Hey guys, here's the next chapter! Things will stay away from the main plot for the next couple chapters as I develop Reyna's character and her relationship with guild members. I hope you enjoy it! Warning, I'm trash at writing fighting scenes...

"I'm not sure this is a good idea Natsu…" Reyna's voice trailed off as she examined the boy standing across from her. After finding out she was planning to stay longer than expected, he immediately dragged her off to 'fight'.

"Don't tell me you're scared." He taunted, cheekily. He smirked as he began stretching out his limbs with a confident look on his face. She had no doubt that he expected her to be an easy opponent. She wasn't the imposing figure that Ezra or Mira were, that was for sure.

"No, I just don't have the best control of my magic and I don't want to hurt anyone." Reyna corrected with a feeling asking to annoyance building in her gut. She supposed this was her 'competitive' side rearing its head. Interesting.

"Don't worry! Freed can place a barrier around us and I'm tough! To hurt me you'll have to hit me first." He grinned toothily at her. Just as he finished talking a green haired boy who looked slightly older than Erza approached from the side.

Now that she looked, Reyna noticed a small crowd of guild members had formed around them looking eager. Lisanna was cheering her on, much to Natsu's chagrin. The green haired boy bowed to her slightly before bending to touch the ground. Reyna assumed this was Freed as he began drawing symbols around the area.

After a minute he nodded in satisfaction before turning to Natsu and herself. "The runes have been set. I shall now activate them." He announced, waving his hand in the air to do just that. Instantly Reyna stiffened. She glanced at the ground which the runes were set on with a frown on her face.

"Eh? Something wrong?" Natsu questioned as he observed her stance. It took a few seconds, but Reyna's posture relaxed.

"It's nothing...just got a bad feeling." She shrugged it off, turning to face her opponent.

"So, what are the rules to this spar? And do you want me to explain my magic beforehand?" She questioned with a tilt to her head.

"How about first person to surrender or get knocked outta the ring loses. Our magic will be trapped inside but we won't be. And nah, don't spoil it! I want to find out in the moment." Natsu insisted, punching his fists together with gusto. Reyna just nodded. It was foolish to let her have this upper hand, but he'd learn that soon.

"Ready, begin!" Freed's voice called out. Instantly Natsu launched a flame covered fist her way. Reyna simply bent back, evading the attack before turning to elbow him in the side as he passed over her. He grunted at the contact, being sent to the ground but not out of the ring. Reyna simply stood there as he recovered just watching and waiting.

Erza examined her from off to the side. Despite the casual appearance Reyna's figure held, she could see the caution in her gaze and the tenseness of her limbs.

Natsu charged at her again and attacked with a barrage of flying fists and fire. He yelled ferociously, never letting up on his attacks. Each hit Reyna either blocked or evaded, a critical gaze following his movements. She had yet to use any magic.

"Fire dragon's claw!" Natsu called out as he launched himself into the air, winding his leg up to hit to her side. But, just as Reyna went to dodge under it again his foot instead shot straight out and collided with her chest.

She winced at the impact, sliding back but managing to stay upright. Her shirt was singed and her chest burned slightly, but otherwise she was fine. Natsu was grinning wildly at her with his fists held up. Suddenly he clasped his hands in front of his mouth. Reyna's eyes widened. She knew what was coming.

"Fire dragon's roar!" A huge stream of fire shot at her from Natsu's mouth. She had to react quickly. Holding her hand out she grasped it by the other, a bluish tint shining from her eyes.

"Arcane missiles." Beams of pure energy shot from her hand. A stray missile shot off course, slamming into Freed's runes. She was thankful they were placed. The others collided with Natsu's flames and the ensuing explosion sent both Natsu and Reyna sprawling.

"Heh, pretty good." Natsu stated as he lifted his head from the ground, still smiling despite the cuts on his face. Her magic wasn't something he'd heard of before, but it seemed cool. Reyna was stronger than he thought. She nodded from her place on the ground across from him.

"Not bad yourself. Dragon slaying magic is just as I've heard." She sat up slowly, pushing herself up with her hand. Natsu began to mimic the motion to continue their fight. But, she simply shook her head confusing him.

"This fight is over. See for yourself." She pointed at his body. Looking down his eyes widened in shock as he took in the countless amounts of blue symbols splaying across his skin.

"Those are explosive seals containing my magic power. I placed them on you earlier as you were attacking me." She explained. He stared at her, wondering how he didn't notice. He didn't feel a thing.

"With a snap of my fingers they could go off." She let that information sink in for a second before indeed snapping her fingers loudly. Natsu winced, awaiting the explosions, but they didn't go off. He opened his eyes hesitantly and glanced down at his body only to see that the seals had disappeared.

"You fought well Natsu." Reyna smiled slightly at him as she relaxed completely. That took the sting out of his apparent loss by a bit. Freed's runes were lowered around them and people went to congratulate Reyna.

"Oi! Next time I'll beat you! Prepare yourself!" Natsu called out, pointing at her with a determined glint to his eyes. She just nodded, smiling slightly wider.

The spar was more entertaining than she thought.

"You did well Reyna. While still learning, Natsu's no pushover." Erza patted Reyna's shoulder as she sat next to her at the table. Reyna shrugged.

" I got lucky. I don't imagine I'll be able to use the same trick on him twice." She said as she nibbled at the toast that Enno had placed in front of her.

Gray leaned over from where he sat, a curious look on his face. "And what was with your magic? Arcane stuff? Never heard of it." He mused. Murmurs of agreement filled the room as the guild considered that. Levy glanced up from the book she had been flipping through.

"I tried looking it up, but there's barely any info on it at all. The info that is there doesn't say anything about arcane mages. It just talks about energy." She mused as she frowned, obviously not used to not finding data.

"Not surprising, to my knowledge I'm the only arcane mage out there. It's the only thing I remembered when I woke up." Reyna explained with a shrug. While she had no memories of her past, her body remembered which she found out after being attacked by a Vulcan.

The event opened up knowledge about her magic, but unfortunately nothing else. Despite the memories it was still hard for her to physically control at times. Energy is a wild element. Levy pulled out a pen and opened a book full of handwritten notes before turning to look intently at Reyna who was staring at her in surprise.

"Can you tell me all about it?" She questioned with an eager grin. Reyna blinked a couple times before nodding hesitantly. "I'll do my best." She replied, walking over to sit next to her. The rest of the guild listened in as well, curious about it.

"Arcane magic is utilizing the natural energy given off the land, pure energy. There's pure energy within us as well, but we aren't really able to control the energy itself. It's instead manipulated to become our own magic. Natsu's comes out as fire for example. Instead of my magic coming from within me, my energy is used to manipulate the world's energy that already exists. My body becomes a conductor for that energy, letting me give it a physical form." She explained as well as she could.

Holding out her hand, she formed a tiny sphere of energy. It pulsed slightly but remained stable. Natsu approached it and stared at it in excitement.

"So can I eat it?!" He made grabbing motions at the ball. Reyna rolled her eyes before tossing the sphere his way. He swallowed it in one gulp to everyone else's surprise.

"It's just pure energy so yeah, dragon slayers can eat it. It won't give you the same boost as fire though." She shrugged as Natsu patted his belly in satisfaction.

"Ah! That was pretty good! Not as good as fire, but not bad." He smiled toothily. Just as Reyna went to respond a blue blur slammed into Natsu's head, sending him sprawling with a yelp.

"Natsuuuuu! You left me alone!" A high pitched voice complained…but, from where? Reyna glanced around, trying to find the source before her eyes landed back on the blue blur. The blue thing was a cat, with wings. Odd.

"Sorry Happy, you had a long day. I thought I'd let you sleep in." Natsu rubbed the head of the cat softly. So, the voice came from the cat. Reyna walked up to the pair and bent down to Happy's level. He turned to see the newcomer and smiled at her.

"You must be Reyna! Natsu mentioned you last night. I-what al yu doin?" His words came out slurred as she grabbed his cheeks and began pulling.

"You're…a talking cat, with wings." She stated simply, not even as a question. Natsu grabbed Happy from her hands and shot her a glare.

"Hey be nice to him! He hasn't grown much since he was hatched." He said as he patted his partner's head. Hatched? Reyna had no idea what world she had woken up in, but she's pretty sure this wasn't normal. Cat's came from other cats, not eggs. Or, did eggs come from cats?

Glancing around she saw that no one else really cared. Must've been normal for them she supposed. Then again the people here weren't exactly the best definition of 'normal'. She wasn't either though, so she couldn't say anything.

She was drawn out of her thoughts as she examined the interaction between Happy and Natsu. Once again she was reminded of the sibling relationship she saw between the Strausses'. They were…family.

Family.

Though, it was hard to really tell who was family around here. Despite the fact that not all the people in the guild were related by blood, they often act as if they were.

On the other hand she had seen many families that treated each other terribly. Reyna supposed it depended on the people. She briefly wondered what her family was like. Did she even have a family? She assumed she came from somewhere…but where?

It wasn't the first time she had questioned her origins.

"Reyna? Are you alright?" An armored hand was placed on her shoulder, drawing her back to the present. She turned around and saw Erza staring down at her with a concerned frown on her face.

"Yes…I'm fine. Just thinking." She shrugged off the concern. Erza didn't seem convinced, but she let the issue go. Speaking of Erza…a thought crossed Reyna's mind. She turned back to the small blue cat who sat on Natsu's shoulder.

"It was nice meeting you Happy." She bowed slightly to the creature before turning to head to the guild's counter. A high pitched 'aye' was shouted her way as she walked. As she approached the counter, Master Makarov looked up at her approaching figure.

"Hm, what's the matter child?" He questioned with a raised brow. Reyna looked up at him, feeling a strong presence behind her. She didn't even have to look to know it was Erza. She was confused about why the armored teen felt the need to accompany her, but he ignored it.

"I was hoping I could take one of the jobs off the board there. I know that they're meant for guild members, but I want to make some money and it will be a good chance to work on my control. I will give 50% to the guild if that helps." She explained.

Makarov's eyes widened slightly in surprise before he stroked his beard, humming in thought.

"That isn't a common request…but, I'll allow it as long as you don't take one of the more dangerous missions. We won't require 50% of the cut, though if you don't mind, I would like you to inform the town you go to that Fairy Tail sent you. It's always good to let the clients know that we received and responded to their request, even if not through one of our guild members." He replied after a minute of thinking.

Reyna nodded in thanks as he proceeded to explain the job process which was pretty simple. Choose a job, get it stamped, and check in with the guild when you return to the guild.

She walked over to the board to decide on which mission to take, the strong presence behind her still following. She sighed, pausing in her search and turning to face Erza.

"Is something wrong?" She questioned as she folded her arms in question. Erza's face seemed serious and her posture was tense.

"Are you sure you want to do a mission? As you said, your magic is still slightly unstable. I wouldn't want you to get injured because of that." She said with a frown.

"I'll be fine. Like I told the master, I won't be choosing too dangerous of a mission. And, while my magic is unstable I still have control most of the time. I should be able to control it long enough to handle this." Reyna replied, feeling confused at Erza's concern.

"As much as I hate to say it, washboard's right. It's a bit dangerous just going by yourself. You should at least take someone with you." Mira suddenly appeared at her other side. Erza shot her a glare at the 'washboard' comment, but otherwise stayed quiet in support of Mira's point.

"I'm fully capable of taking care of myself for one, small mission. I don't need one of you to follow me. I'll be back soon." She waved off their concern and grabbed one of the smaller missions asking someone to investigate monster sightings by the edges of Oshibana. She turned to walk to the counter to get it stamped, missing the worried look the two girls shared behind her back.

"Enno, could I get this mission stamped?" Reyna asked, placing the flyer in front of the woman who was currently drying cups. She examined the paper with surprise before pulling out the stamp.

"Oh? Taking a mission? I didn't know the master allowed non guild members to do so, but it's not my call. Be careful Reyna." She said, stamping the paper and waving as the girl turned to head out the door.

"Bye Reyna! Be careful!"

"Kick some butt!"

Other shouts of farewell were sent her way as she waved over her shoulder before closing the door behind her. Erza and Mira had still been looking sullen as she left, with Lisanna attempting to placate them.

Natsu gave them a confused glance before turning to Gray.

"Man, I don't get why Erza and Mira are so worried. Reyna's strong! Even though she's not a Fairy Tail member, she's got the guts of one." He stated as he placed his fists on his hips.

"Eh, I don't really get it either, but that's girls for you. The other women seem pretty worried too. I'm surprised Erza didn't forcefully join Reyna." Gray shuddered at the thought. Erza still terrified him. If she wanted to join then it would've been suicide to say no. But here she was still at the guild. Reyna had some guts…or a death wish.

"They'll see, Reyna will come back soon! I can't wait to hear how it went." Natsu grinned, but it quickly faded as he took in Gray's state of dress.

"AH! You stripper, you're gonna blind me!

"You wanna go ash brains?!"

Reyna looked out the window of the train as the scenery flew by at high speeds. This wasn't her first time on a train, but it always intrigued her.

She hadn't been to Oshibana yet in her travels. She came from the West. It would be interesting seeing a new town again. Though, Reyna hoped she would be received better there than in Magnolia.

She supposed the fruit incident was her fault, but the man was overreacting in her opinion. Leaning back against the seats she closed her eyes. Best she get some sleep before arriving.

Unknown to her, a few rows behind, a certain red head sat with a white haired companion.

Next: First Mission