Note- K, we got chapter four coming at you. Hey all readers/reviews I'm starting to wonder if I'm making my chapter long enough. I think that I'm not, but I don't want to add more or not unless people are tired of these shortish things. Just let me know because I can make them longer, but... _ (Conflicting thoughts!)
The sun wasn't quite setting yet because there was still blue in the sky, but the hike to the forest definitely ate up some time. It took some time of wandering along the edge until they found the ruins of some rocky and ancient shrine. You couldn't really make out what it was supposed to look like before because now it was covered in overgrowth and the elements had beaten it down.
"Ok were here. We walked who knows how far and there is nothing but some raggedy old shrine!" Cana angrily screamed at Gajeel.
"Shut up. The guy said that they were going to meet with him here today." Gajeel yelled back at her.
"Oh well if the guy who we've known for all of five minutes said so then I guess it must be true. It's not like thief's lie or anything."
"Hey you know what I..."
Gajeel was cut short of his sentence because a figure was stepping out from behind some bushes. It was a thin woman with no particular features other then you darker then night hair that went down to her waist and had bangs cut straight across over her brow. She has a white dress with long sleeves and the hem went at an angle from above her right knee to just below her left. The woman had a thin black belt that went at an angle opposite to the hem around her waist and worse heeled sandals that wrapped up her leg to the middle of her calf and across her foot.
"Wha.. What are you people doing here?" The girl got an instant look of fearfulness and her hand cupped her mouth.
"Who are you lady?" Gajeel asked in his blunt sort of way.
"No, no, no this is out of order, off schedule" She started to ramble to herself completely ignoring them. "He was supposed to come here get his instructions and then go off. This has thrown my whole day out of wack, now I need to reschedule push dates!"
"Um, are you all right?" Levy asked concerned.
"Am I all right? How can you ask that? How can I be all right when three strangers just show up unannounced. No one told me that it would be three people coming out. I thought that it would just be the same guy we've been using. Damn it Ayaka never tells me anything." The woman paused for a second before turning her head with a hard look on it looking at Levy, Gajeel, and Cana all at once. "You three. Tell me each of your names. I need something to wright down to update my datebook and then I'll tell you a few things we need."
"Um, I don't know who you are, but we aren't here to do any favors." Levy asked convinced this lady was crazy.
"Then why the hell are you, other then to throw my whole day off!"
"Well we were looking for these people who have been stealing all these things... Maybe you know them. Charmcaster and Stone are names they go by."
The names struck recognition on the woman's face.
"Well then if you're the group that's been asking a lot of questions then I have to... say good bye."
The woman turned and quickly ran back into the dense brush. The group were stunned at what just happened until Gajeel regained focus and ran after her. Levy called out to him, but he had already gone to far in. Cana and Levy took a look at each other and ran in behind him. The two quickly found themselves lost in the forest and started to go back, but after walking a bit back they realized they weren't getting anywhere.
"Oh, all I wanted was an easy job, and it had to turn into this." Levy complained tired and leaning on a tree.
"Hmmm we've been wondering for hours and we haven't found a sign of anyone." Cana said looking around.
"Yeah, it's so hard to focus and keep track with that awful scent floating around in this place."
"Hmmm, what is that smell? I don't remember this scent coming from the shrine."
"I don't know what it is, but this and the sun beating into me has me exhausted." Levy was now resting on the ground.
"That's another thing we've been in here for a few hours so the sun should be down by now, but it's not. Why does the sky look so bright and why are we feeling heat?"
"Ah, this place is making me crazy. I wonder how Gajeel is doing."
"He's probably..." Cana's head jerked up and looked around focusing on something. "Levy... did you hear that?"
Levy was now at attention too. She heard something far off in the forest. Definitely something big coming in. Levy didn't know if she would have the strength to fight while dealing with this forest. A large bush began to shake and Cana's hand was in her bag at the ready for an attack. The bush shook a few more times and out came... Lucy.
The two girls were surprised by this encounter. Lucy was supposed to be with the rest of her team and Juvia fighting off some monsters.
"Lu... Lu-Chan!" Levy shouted ecstatic that her best friend was here and happy for a friendly face.
"Huh... Le-Chan?" Lucy sounded just as surprised to be hear as they were to see her.
"What are you doing here. I thought you and the rest of your group were off somewhere else."
"Uh, we were, but we were on our way back and Natsu convinced us of this short cut as opposed to taking the train and a little later we all ended up lost in this forest. What about you?"
"We were on a job and ended up in here too."
"A job? With Jet and Droy?"
"No, with Cana and Gajeel."
Lucy took a look around the area they were in now noticing Cana.
"I don't Gajeel here Levy."
"We got separated when he went chasing after this black haired lady."
"Black... haired... lady... OH! I've seen her! She was in a hurry threw here and mumbling something about having to reorganize and reschedule."
The three girls sat down and tried to get a hold on the situation.
"Ok this is what we have" Cana began "We're tired, in a forest that has a weird smell and won't turn to night time, and we have five comrades missing with possibly three dangerous enemies out their."
"Wow, things are a lot more scary now that you put it like that." Lucy said a scared look on her face.
"Well look at it this way they're eight of us total and only three of them. We can definitely beat who ever comes our way." Levy said trying to lighten the mood.
"K, well I know that it looks like noon, but it's probably the middle of the night so lets grab some sleep." Cana said as she started to use her bag as a pillow.
Cana curled up next to a tree with extra wide roots for a pillow. She tried to rid her thoughts of everything distracting herself from sleep and made her way into the sweet abyss. She had black sleep for a while, but then a strange pink fog came into her mind and everything had a pink shade to it. Then she started to see weird shapes and people that were just floating through an abyss. She tried to wake up, but couldn't something about the dream kept her from breaking it. The shapes and people bumped into each other and some started to fall. Then the ones left expanded until they were big and bloated before exploding with a loud "BANG" and she jumped up, out of her sleep with a stifled yell. After the initial wake up shock Cana felt more exhausted then when she went to sleep. Looking, around she saw Lucy and Levy still asleep. She instinctively looked up at the sky before remembering that it was always day time here. She stood up and had to hold on to the tree to keep her balance. The land steadied out and Levy started to walk over to Lucy and Cana deciding that they should all get up and start moving. Levy found that every step was an effort. The scent of the forest seemed to grow in strength and was now literally forcing her to put all her focus on just standing. She was about to fall to the ground the smell suddenly lightened up and eventually disappeared completely. Cana's face was one of shock as she stood straight up and didn't know what to make of the situation. She walked over and nugged both Levy and Lucy, but they didn't move. She pushed them a little harder, but still no response. She started to get worried.
Cana was about to just scream in their ears when a little laugh came from the woods. She turned her head in the direction it was coming from and out came a man about her height and with a slender build. He had eyes that drooped down and so many bags under his bloodshot eyes Cana wondered if he ever slept. His hair was raven colored, but with a purple hue to it and was unkept, falling over his eyes and the back of his neck. Cana couldn't see much of what he was wearing under his gray cloak that covered all but the black boots he wore.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be laughing, but it's funny that you can't even tell when your friends are under Sleep Magic."
The man had a voice older then his face gave away.
"Who are you?" Cana asked already guessing him to be an enemy.
"I go by Nightwalker, and I don't appreciate it when people trespass into my forest."
"We just got lost. We don't want any problems."
"Oh, we'll clearly that's a lie. I was going to put all of you into a deep sleep before slicing you up, but you just had to break it."
The man had stepped closer now, and Cana could see the anger behind his bloody eyes.
"How could I break it? I didn't know anyone was even here."
"Really? Well then perhaps I overestimated you. This forest is called the Forest of Hysteria. The scent it emits confuses the scenes, tricking them into seeing and feeling weird. It's a great place to use my magic with out anyone catching on, but when you woke up I was most surprised. I felt some resistance from your friends over there, but I was able to subdue them quickly enough."
"We don't want any issues. Just let us go.."
"Oh no I'm onto you. Hex told use that a group of three were here to try and stop us. Though she said one of you was a guy, but I guess Hex was wrong about that. In fact you're all pretty attractive."
"Wait, are you one of the people whose been stealing from the shops across this area."
"It's not so much stealing as it is finding a better use for stuff no one wants anyway. The people who had these things had no idea what they were or what they could do."
"And I guess that means you're not going to give them back?"
The man look surprised at Cana's new hard-looked face, but then laughed a little.
"Don't make me laugh girlie. I can tell from here that you don't have the raw magic it takes to beat me, and with your friends out for the count over there. You're lucky I let you live this long."
End of Chapter 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~