Okay so I'm sorry for not updating, trust me it's been on my mind to put up this chapter; Work can suck the life out of anybody. But without further ado, I give you chapter two. (Hey that rhymed) P.S I'm no good at fight scenes, you'll see why in a bit
At age six little ruby was growing to be a strategic fighter, her battling skills seemed to be a bit more graceful when sparring with her friends.
While nashi went in head first and fist blazing. Ruby took a more thoughtful approach, she simply had to study her enemy for two minutes before fighting to counter balance them, her style was to dodge and deflect, and then when her opponent lest expected it she would simply attack their weak points in their fighting style and win. Such an incident happened when ruby and jasper sparred one day.
Behind the guild hall, two kids were seen squaring off against each other on a warm summer day, while the other four simply relaxed in the pool or enjoyed a cool snack of watermelon, after sparring against the other children beforehand.
"Alright jasper, it seems we're both at a tie, so winner has to do the other person chore for a week" ruby announced, in a sparkly silver skirt and red shirt combo.
"Alright ruby, but when I win, you're going to hate mopping the floors. Jasper responded back while he was dressed in black shorts and a light blue tank top.
"On the count of three"
"One "ruby said while widening her feet apart
"Two" jasper said while taking a stance"
"THREE!" They both yelled in unison as they charged each other
The fight was soon under way, ruby quickly started to dance and dodge all of jaspers punches. Seeing as this was a no magic battle they were evenly matched. When jasper threw an uppercut punch, ruby dodged and slides to the right, she soon jumps away when jasper goes for a low sweep.
Soon he's charging with punches left and right, while ruby simply shuffles to the opposite direction of the punches. As he goes for a last attempt at a round house kick she quickly grabs his foot and pushes him away, using the momentum she hops back, as she lands on her feet. She can now see jasper sweating and breathing hard.
Without a moment to lose ruby charges in with a jab to the ribs and a kick to his side, jasper seeing her finally fighting back, gets more energy and resumed his fight. Blow after blow was exchanged, each fighting in their own way, but as he's punching, ruby dodged each and every punch this gave her time to see how open he was; she quickly ducks and swings her fist into his rib cage and stomach. while this leaves him stunned, ruby see his other opening where his feet stand apart and as jasper charges and attempts a low sweep again, ruby jumped and spring boarded off his chest into a mid-air flip as she lands in a crouching position behind him and jabbed his back twice in a row, before she low swept him to the ground, when he was lying flat on the ground she grabbed his arms and held them up, while her foot was planted on his back, he was down for the count.
"So... ready for bathroom duty" ruby drawled
"No fair! You used dragon speed" jasper yelled in wounded pride
"I did no such thing! I simply saw how open you were and used that to my advantage" ruby said confidently
"When?, we were fighting the whole time" jasper asked in confusion.
"When we first began I dodged your punches and studied your moves" ruby began
"Like when you punch you leave your side unguarded, your stance needs to be tighter and you're too slow when you try for a low sweep" ruby finished as she counted off the flaws in his fighting style
Soon she helps jasper to his feet and they shake hands for a good spar. They soon join the others for some watermelon and relaxing before they have to go home for dinner.
After that event, the parents all thought it would be a good idea to build a gym for the next generation, to where they couldn't destroy buildings and property's alike, so when the gym opened every kid was excited to work on their fighting style, so as to not be blind sighted the next time they sparred.
Ruby experienced her first trip to the beach at age seven. Sure they were there for training, before the grand magic games, but still the beach was amazing! Gajeel showed ruby all the great places at the beach, after they finished training for the day, which they both improved significantly for just one of day training.
He showed ruby how to build a sand tower, taught her how to swim in the ocean, and even took her to find sea shells, which she was going to take back to her mother to make her grave a little bit prettier, but the best part was when lily offered to take ruby on a flying tour of the beach.
Gajeel stared in amazement, his daughter was flying like a dragon, as pantherlily took her high over the palm trees, showed her the sandy hills and even let her touch the water mid-flight.
As the two continued their flight, they did a few loops and tricks in the sky before gajeel called them down for lunch, which consisted of three sub sandwiches and some extra tasty bolts on the side for gajeel and ruby while in lily's case some fresh kiwis were given to him.
After lunch was over ruby decided to take a small nap seeing as it was a long day, by the time she woke up it was about late evening but it was still plenty hot. Lily greeted her when she woke up and told her, her dad was getting them a surprise and that he would be back soon.
Ruby satisfied by the answer decided to make some sand art before her dad got back, she was half through making a sand dragon, when her dad familiar shadow fell over them, she looked up and saw that he had gotten them ice cream cones for each of them.
Ruby got a strawberry cone, while her dad got fudge brownie and lily got a vanilla swirl.
They soon happily ate their desert, they started to pack up as the sun was setting and evening was approaching before going back to the hotel for the night. Needless to say that was the best beach trip ever. She was definitely telling her mom all about it when they got home in three days.
Two months after her eighth birthday she was finally allowed to go on a mission! Okay so a small mission, to the farmers market, with lily and her friend nashi but a mission nonetheless.
They had to make sure they got everything they needed for they weekly shopping trip while gajeel, jet and droy went on a mission for some extra jewels.
Even though both jet and droy were devastated at the loss of levy, they both seemed to help gajeel and themselves get through the grief together and soon became tolerable, much to the great iron dragons amazement.
Anyway both natsu and gajeel promised their little girls that if they stayed out of trouble and got everything on the list, that both of them would get paid a bit of jewels for their service.
So as the girls and lily walked down the farmers market, they were soon bombarded with all the smells, colorful signs and vendors at the town square.
"Alright girls, let's get everything on the list and if we have time we can explore a bit" pantherlily stated as both girl turned they attention to their guardian for the day.
"Yay!" Both girls exclaimed while following lily to the produce stands, where he showed each girl how to pick good fruits and vegetable from the bad ones.
"Alright next on the list is the baker" nashi said while looking around for the familiar sign of bread she saw a while ago.
"Oh it's over there!" ruby exclaimed while pointed to the right of them to where the sign of bread was located.
As all three walked closer to the baker they quickly got their bread and headed over to the dairy store and soon after to the meat market, to pick up the last perishable food items beforeloading it in their small wagon and cover it with a canvas cloth To keep the food cold, While they explored to rest of the farmers market.
As they walked they picked up a few more items that weren't on the list but was well deserved. They got a few desserts and juice for both of their families and checked out the small stands that sold regular and rare magical items to mages and people alike.
But what really caught both ruby and nashi eyes was the beautiful friendship necklace at one of the stands, the charms were two dragons in the yin and yang design but one was a sky blue while the other was a bright pink in coloring, on the blue side it said "best" and the bright pink side said "friends".
Lily took noticed of this and made sure to tell both of their fathers when they came back.
As he rounded up the girls, they headed back over to their cart and headed to nashi's house for lunch and to drop off half of the groceries.
Before lily and ruby left, they thanked both Natsu and Lucy for lunch and while nashi and ruby said goodbye, lily told both parents of the friendship necklace at the farmers market and how both girls loved them, taking that in to consideration both natsu and lucy thanked panther lilly for the information.
But soon afterwards all five said their goodbyes as ruby and lily left the house, and started to make the journey back home.
At nine years old she took her first girls trip with the other fairy tail woman to Hargenon for a shopping trip, to pick out new fall outfits and buy some more feminine products, her dad was happy to stay at the guild for their shopping trip, as if her aunt erza would allow him to come anyway
As the woman of fairy tail roamed the streets, they soon stopped by a couple of boutique's that had some cute clothing for both kids and adults
As everyone went to their desired racks, Lucy led ruby to the girls section, to help pick out some clothes and undergarments she would need later in her youth.
"Alright let's see" Lucy hummed as she pick out some outfits
"How about this one", she pointed out a sky-blue dress with silver lining on the skirt and sleeves along with a cute white bow on the back
"Yeah that one looks nice" ruby said as she studied the material
They picked out a few more outfits and then went to the underwear and bra section, where Lucy and ruby picked out a normal white bra, a black one with red hearts and a blue one with little flowers on it, after that, they picked out some matching underwear and plain white socks along with new winter boots, seeing as her old ones were too small.
As they were making their way to the cashier, ruby spotted something that caught her eye in one of the racks.
"What about this Aunt Lucy" ruby asked, as she held up an orange dress with short sleeves and a white bow that tied around the neck with a matching yellow headband
"Yeah, that would look... great... on you." Lucy stumbled with her words as they seemed to get caught in her throat, as tears gathered in her eyes
"Aunt Lucy what's wrong?" ruby asked, as she noticed her aunt stop mid speech and look to be on the verge of tears
"Nothing sweetie, just some fond memories that make, me a little sad"
"Why what are they?" ruby said as she held the dress in her arms, liking the way the fabric felt soft yet sturdy in her hands
"It's just... your mom had a similar dress like that on when I first met her" lucy said as she dried her tears and bent down to the look the child in the eyes.
"You know, she was my first female friend at fairy tail when I got there, she loved books as much as I did and when I told her I was writing a novel she wanted to be the first to read it" Lucy finished, as she softly felt the fabric and added it to the rest of the pile.
Ruby looked up at her aunt as she paid for the items and joined the rest of the girls, she wanted to ask more questions, but her stomach told her it was lunch time. As the girls met up they all discussed how they needed lunch and headed to the pier for some fish and chips
That day during lunch ruby asked her question about what her mom was like and everyone told different stories of her mother, like when she first formed shadow gear, survived tenrou island and edolas and how she saved gajeel and natsu from being trapped in magic ruins when laxus took over,
Tears were shed that day along with laughter and ruby was proud of her mom, for finding a guild as happy and caring as fairy tail, she felt closer to her mom than ever before. Needless to say when ruby got home that night and showed her dad the clothes she got, but when she showed him the orange dress he hugged her so tight she couldn't breathe telling her she picked out a good dress
Ruby finally got to go on her very first camping trip when she was ten years old, with all her friends and their parents.
For a whole weekend they were going to learn how to survive in the woods.
As they walked in to the nearby forest, they set up camp at a wide clearing and soon the sun was setting it was time to learn how to survive in the woods and make a proper sleeping area.
They needed this lesson in case any of them were to go on a mission, when they are older and there is no nearby inn's. So nashi and azula collected firewood with grey and erza.
Ruby and storm helped natsu make a fire pit and collect tinder, while Emelia and jasper put up the tents with gajeel and lucy helping and guiding them on where to put the stakes and the poles.
Ten minutes later erza and grey returned with the kids, who had their arms full of good burnable wood as they set it down near the fire pit, natsu had shown the kids how to light a spark on the kindling and tinder with a flint, seeing as they may not always have a fire mage nearby.
Soon the tinder caught a small spark and started to burn, slowly they started to add the twigs and medium sized branches as the fire grew larger with each new branch. In no time at all a god sized fire was whipping back and forth in the breeze.
Now that they had more light in their camp ground, jasper and Emelia were able to set up the tent properly and soon their campsite was ready for them, the adult then seeing as the kids had worked hard decided to make dinner.
The kids sat in a circle while lucy and erza showed them good vegetables and dried meat to cook in a soup, while explaining to heat and boil the water first before adding in the ingredients, while everything was cooking gajeel showed them different types of herb that where good for healing and seasoning he picked out some thyme, basil and parsley and added it to the soup.
While gajeel was teaching the kids about herbs as he put the good ones in the soup, Wendy decided to meet up with everyone and give the kids a crash course in first aid; she would spend the night and show the kids how to heal minor burns, cuts, and scrapes with the healing herbs they found, she was also excited about teaching them about how to make a splint in case of anything.
After a crash course in medical care and a decent dinner, the fire was put out for safety precautions.
Well into the night as the families were asleep, something stirred and rustled the trees and bushes as a new scent drifted into the forest scent, one that was a dangerous scent to our resident dragon slayers as natsu and gajeel woke up to this new scent they knew they would have to deal with this threat fast before anyone got hurt.
"Gajeel, you smell that to right?" natsu asked as he slowly got up from his sleeping bag and proceeded to open the tent.
"Yeah we should put the kids in one tent, while erza, gray and Lucy watch them" gajeel stated, knowing the kids came first.
"Psst... gray, hey gray, wake up" natsu whispered quietly as to not wake the kids
"What going on, is something wrong?" asked gray rubbing his eyes
"Yeah it is, we need to get storm and jasper to the girls tent come on" natsu said hurriedly as he picked up jasper and headed to the girls tent.
Gajeel was already outside watching for any movement, while natsu and gray transported the kids to the girl's tent and woke erza up as well.
As all the adult gathered around, gajeel explained the plan to everyone present not knowing that a pair of eyes were watching and listening
"Natsu and I picked up the scent of some bandits, about half a mile out" gajeel said as he pointed to the trees.
"We need gray, Wendy and Lucy to stay behind and watch the kids" Natsu said
"Erza, natsu and I will go sweep em out and make sure they go running" gajeel said
Soon everyone headed to the duties as the two dragon slayers and erza left for the forest as Wendy, gray and Lucy returned to the tent, were most of the kids were awake and wondering what was going on.
"Mom what's going on, where is everyone" nashi asked as she looked around and saw that everyone was here except her dad ,uncle gajeel and aunt erza.
"It's alright sweetie your dad, gajeel and erza went out into the forest because they head something and they wanted to make sure everything was safe" Lucy told nashi, as she stroked her hair to sooth her daughter.
Ruby looked at the scene of a mother and daughter comforting each other, and for once felt a bit jealous of her friend, of course she loved her dad and she knew her mom was with her in her heart but every now and then envy always made itself known, when she saw mothers doting on their kids ruby quickly shook her head of those thoughts and proceeded with her plan.
While everyone else was chatting about what could be wrong, Wendy was answering their questions to the best of her ability, so as to not spook them.
Gray stood watch outside, in case any bandits made their way towards camp and didn't notice when a small thing crawled out from the tent and slowly made its way to the forest following the scent of her father.
Ruby made her way through the forest by the tree tops so as not to alert her presence to her father and the bad guys, as she jump from tree top, to tree top see look between the branches making sure to follow the right path behind her father and uncle, as they snuck through the forest.
Twenty minutes later she saw the bandits, as did her father and uncle did too, she watched them from her perch fifty feet away as they all took fighting stances, it seem to be a three on one battle, but after some words were exchanged and weird magic thrown at natsu, gajeel and erza it quickly turned out to be an even three on three match.
"We're getting close I can smell them" Natsu said taking in a whiff of the air
"I can sense one of them, but the others are hiding" Gajeel said as they moved closer to the bandits hideout
"Let's be alert and quick we have no idea what they are capable of" Erza said nodding to the lone bandit up ahead
As they came upon the lone figure, his appearance seemed like a bad western costume, with the big hat cowboy boots and a polka-dot bandana around his neck
"Now who do I owe the pleasure of having three people come and greet me?" said the cowboy bandit
"Well we were wondering what you were doing near our camp" gajeel all but growled out
"Oh well you know, looking for fire wood, getting water, scouting out your campsite nothing much really" the bandit said while cracking his knuckles
"Well then it seems we will have to take you out" natsu lit his hand on fire, While the others took their fighting stance
"Alrighty then let's make this a fair fight" the cowboy sneered, as he put his hand in the air and waved it through the air he called out an old dark spell
"!llaf yam yeht taht os cigam rieht em tnarg ,lla ti sah ohw nosrep eht si lufrewop"
All at once a black and purple mist shot straight for the three fairy tail mages, unfortunately they moved to slow and as the mist coiled around them, they suddenly fell to their knees in pain.
By the time they fought back the pain it was too late, the mist had now taken on a red, black, and pink coloring as some of it was absorbed into the cowboy and the rest of the mist dissolved into two other men, as they came out of the bushes and trees with all three together it seemed the cowboy trend had caught on.
When the fight began, natsu and gajeel noticed they didn't have they powers anymore and erza couldn't requip into another dress, it seemed that all three of them knew what the crazy bandit had done, but it only fueled their anger even more.
As they charged head first into the fray, they kicked and punched and jabbed each cowboy but the cowboys kept dodging and ducking every which way one threw iron knifes and it almost hit natsu another one threw flames at erza but thankfully missed and gajeel was getting peppered by different swords, seeing as he couldn't eat iron, he had to dodge each sword as it littered the battle ground
As everyone fought on, they all noticed how the cowboys were finally getting tired, but one soon smirked and drew out a long whistle into the trees, soon a griffon, the size of a barrel, tore out from the tree branches and was heading straight towards gajeel's back.
All three fairy tail members didn't think that whistle was of importance, until it was almost too late
"DAD LOOK OUT!" Ruby shouted as she sprinted towards her father
Everyone looked up in shock and anger as a small silver thing jumped into the air
"Iron dragon wind attack!" Ruby yelled as her hand unleashed claws and her arm turned a silver color, she soon cut down the griffons attack and took the creature head, as the griffon was driving towards the ground it quickly swooped back up and tried to attack ruby with its talons but ruby was quick and used a dragon kick to knock it out.
As natsu, gajeel and erza where finishing up with the bandits, they realized what just happened and were not pleased.
"And what do you think you were doing young lady" gajeel roared, as he felt his powers come back to him as well as the others felt it too.
"Oh um hi?" ruby said hesitantly, as looked down in embarrassment, realizing she blew her cover.
"Natsu, Erza take care of these clowns, I need to have a word with my daughter" Gajeel said in a low tone that left no room for arguments
As erza and natsu took the bandit into town, gajeel walked his daughter to a nearby rock; He soon got on his knees, just as ruby sat down on the rock.
"Ruby what were you thinking, you could have been killed today" gajeel said sternly
"But dad I just wanted to help" ruby said but she wouldn't meet his eyes
"I know you do, but if these were harder criminal and you did something that reckless again... I could have lost you." gajeel slowly turned her face to meet his eyes
"I'm only telling you this because I love you, if something were to happen to you I don't know what I would do" Gajeel paused for a moment letting his words sink in.
"I don't want to lose you too" gajeel sadly said as ruby took in his words, understanding soon dawned on her.
I know daddy, and I'm sorry, I was just trying to be brave like you and mom" ruby said as she hugged her father's arm
He was upset and disappointed with her for leaving camp but he was also a little proud of how she took down the griffon, but he wasn't going to tell her that right now.
"But you are already so brave as it your mom would be proud, as am I" gajeel said as hugged his daughter back. as father and daughter shared they peaceful moment natsu and erza returned and they all started to make their way towards camp.
Squawk!
Everyone turned back towards the noise, just barley realizing that the griffon was still alive and was stomping the ground with a limp wing, but upon further inspection it was crushing a red gem like collar.
"Oh so it was being controlled, aww the poor thing" ruby said as she walked towards the griffon and slowly got on the ground.
"Ruby don't get any closer, it could be dangerous" erza yelled in warning
It's okay just don't make any sudden moves okay" ruby asked the adults as they had their magic ready if they needed it.
When the griffon realized it was being watched, it got into a defensive position with a glaring eyes, its talons out, and fluffing its feathers in a warning.
"Hey there, I'm sorry I attacked you I didn't mean to, I mean obviously you were being controlled and I didn't know it, honest but if you come with me I can help you with your wing" ruby talked slowly to the creature, knowing it was frighten of humans, but couldn't bare to see it hurt, especially when she was the cause of it.
Seeing as the child had no weapons and was calm, the griffon lowed it stance but was still on high alert wary of the other humans nearby, it very well knew it could not fly and it had no idea where home was, so it decided to walked towards the child.
That it, its okay I'm not going to hurt you" ruby calmly placed her hand in front of her while looking down, she read somewhere that griffons look for respect, and a head bow was a good start.
The griffon slowly put its beak near the child's hand and rubbed against her "this child showed respect, so I must return it" the griffon thought even though it was only a year old it remembered the rules of the flock well
"So do you want to come with us, I can fix your wing back at camp and you can stay with me" ruby said gently, while giving her dad the puppy dog eyes
"Having a pet is a big responsibility, are you up for the task" gajeel said as he watch his daughter think it over.
"Yes I am willing to help care for it as long as it needs me too"
"Okay but make sure to do your research and take care of it alright, no slacking" gajeel said sternly while watching the creature with curious eyes
"Aye sir!" ruby exclaimed while getting up off the floor and walking with the griffon back to camp
Back at camp everyone was amazed by what happened but the griffon was still weary of this many people and stood by ruby's side, as ruby mended its wing and fed it some left over soup, it was learning that this child was different than the rest of the humans.
Soon everyone went back to sleep as dawn was over the horizon, the griffon slept outside by the still warm ashes of the fire, as day soon took over.
Well this was a long chapter and it took me a while but here it is right on thanksgiving. So read and review please and thank you also flame it if you want I use fire to roast hot dogs. So this is me signing out BarkRuff!
