Woo, New chapter! As ever I am nothing but a humble fanfic writer playing with someone else's toys. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima and any similarities in my OCs to anything else are purely coincidental.
I'm also messing with an idea for a GaLe one shot that may or may not see the light of day. Not sure yet. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts :)
"So all you really need is the Guild Master's approval. Of course, having someone put in a good word for you can only help but we've had people walk in and join up dozens of times. As long as you're a mage and you're willing to work you should be just fine" Lucy was busy explaining to the glowing fangirl in her presence. Lumia looked like all her dreams were coming true. She and Marci were sat by a fountain with the Celestial Wizard and her two friends. Natsu and Happy were happily devouring the steamed buns that Marci had bought them. Lumia had wasted no time in screaming that she was their biggest fan and it would be a dream come true to join her favourite guild. So far she hadn't said anything about her magic, or the groups unusual start.
"Om nom… If you wanna join the guild you should come with us! Nom nom" Natsu managed to say around mouthfuls
"Yeah, we're going back to the guild now. We just finished a mission and we need to find someone to look at a stinky book for us" said Happy. Natsu swallowed his mouthful with a noisy gulp.
"Speaking of which, where is that thing? I haven't smelled it in a while"
"I found this at the local magic store. The guy there said this cloth was enchanted and could keep clean and fresh for weeks without washing it. I just hope it's strong enough to last until we get home" Lucy explained as she pulled a large cloth covered tome out of her bag. The cloth had been a pristine white when she had bought it, a mere half hour ago. It was already starting to yellow from touching the stinky thing.
"Don't unwrap it Lucy, these buns taste good and the smell makes me sick" Complained Happy, grabbing another bun from the bag as he did so
Lucy just looked at the wrapped up book. She couldn't get the figures she'd seen in the text out of her head. There were people trapped inside it, they'd all witnessed what Bosh had done to the girl with the purple hair. There was no way of knowing how many people he's trapped inside it before they'd stopped him. Lucy was confident that once they got back to the guild hall her friend Levy McGarden would know what to do, but if the Script mage was away on a mission what would they do then? The figures she'd seen had clearly been desperate to be free. Lucy took a look at the two would be recruits. Lumia had joined in a competition with Natsu and Happy to see who could fit a whole bun in their mouth the fastest. Clearly not the smartest of the bunch. Marci however…
"I know this is kind of a long shot but I don't suppose either of you know any kind of word or letter based magic?" She asked, not sure what to expect. Lumia swallowed her bun in an even louder gulp than Natsu had managed, earning herself a thumbs up from the fire dragon slayer.
"Oh Marci does! She uses Glyph magic, but it's not very good. She burned her hand trying to light a fire with it. I could have done it better with my sunlight magic because sunlight can light fires"
"HEY! I thought you were the nice one!" The spiky haired girl was not happy
"Oh! Glyph magic! That's perfect! You have to be really good at research and written magic to use it. I've read all about the different styles but I've never actually seen someone perform it before! Do you have any marks tattoo'd yet or have you not perfected them enough. I know that if the lines cross or if the matrix is incorrect the spell can backfire and since you've only got limited space on your body before you run out of places where you can put the marks they have to be perfect!" Lucy grabbed Marci's hands, suddenly very excited about this new magic. Off to one side, Lumia whimpered slightly now that the attention was no longer on her.
"Wait, tattoos?" Kayla had reappeared and actually took an interest in something other than herself. Marci looked embarrassed at all the sudden attention.
"Err… yeah. Glyphs take a long time to draw, and the spells only work if the mage can pass their magic energy though the glyph. Losing contact breaks the spell. So most Glyph mages research the marks they want until they're perfect and then put them permanently onto their skin. Bun?" Marci offered her the bag of goodies. "This is Kayla, she's with us"
"Hmm, that's actually interesting, about your magic" She said, taking a bun from the bag "I still think you're weak though, you don't have any marks or tattoos that I've seen"
"Your name's not Kayla, It's Captain Mean Pants"
"Hey! Hey! Girls! Argue later. Right now I need someone to help decipher this book and you're the nearest person who can help. If you wanna join my guild, you've got to help" Lucy jumped to her feet and pointed at Marci though out her little speech, making the confused girl pause with a bun halfway to her mouth
"You can do tha… HEY!" A certain hungry Exceed decided to help himself to the bun that Marci clearly wasn't eating. Off to the side, Natsu was pondering with Lumia about what sun fire tasted like.
"Yes I can. I'm officially recruiting you to Fairy Tail as of this moment. Your friends too. Now come on, we're going to find Erza and you are going to see what you can make of this book right now!" Lucy yelled as she grabbed the protesting Glyph mage by the collar and dragged her off.
"Hey! Wait for us! Oh my gosh Kayla, we're gonna join Fairy Tail!" Lumia chirped with joy and ran after them with Kayla in tow, leaving Happy and Natsu with what was left of the food.
"Silly Lucy, she's not the Guild Master" the cat tutted.
In the mansion currently playing home to the former members of the Hydra Head guild dark things were afoot. Wyndham had never bothered to find out the name of his particular kind of magic, he knew he could summon and control any kind of insect and that was all that bothered him. Brunhilde called him arrogant for that but honestly he didn't care. This guild was one of the few places he had found where people didn't automatically recoil in disgust the second one of his worms or roaches made it's presence known. Right now he was busy. His spiders had secured their captive in a cellar and right now one of his unique mutations was hard at work. It had been a moth once but under Wyndham's powers it had become much more. It was currently covering the boy in spores that would induce a sleeping sickness. The Master wanted to see Bosh's new magic for himself, this so-called Dreamers magic. Maybe he was hoping that it held the key to his dream of eternal life. Whatever. It didn't matter to Wyndham, as long as he had a place where he didn't have to feel ashamed of his power he'd do his part. If that meant keeping this boy poisoned and tied up then so be it.
He felt the spiders in the corner of the room move. Someone was coming.
"I thought I'd find you down here Wyndham" said a far too cheerful voice. The man would never understand where the girl got her cheerful disposition from. Lady Eustace carefully made her way down the stairs. Following her closely was her guard dog, the ever prim and proper Brunhilde.
"Of course I'm down here. The Master ordered me to keep that secured" He gestured towards the boy in the spider webs
"You don't think he's a real person?"
"Real people don't fall apart and get sucked into books. I don't know what it is" The man spoke grumpily "Now why are you here?"
Truth be told Wyndham didn't really mind Lady Eustace. The blind girl never reacted with disgust to him or his powers. He hated her damn maid though, always following her about and treating everything with scorn. Right now he could see her sneering at the dirty cellar out of his one good eye.
"I wanted to ask you what you thought about that new guy, Maddock. He only joined our guild a few weeks before… well… you know. But ever since then The Master has been acting like he's this really old friend that he's known forever. But I don't know anything about him" the young girl said. She'd been the daughter of a wealthy merchant once, until her powers had driven the entire family insane. Only Brunhilde had been strong enough to withstand it, and she was fiercely loyal to the young girl. Ever since then the young Lady had made it a point to be sure that she knew as much as she could about the people around her, in order to avoid any more…mistakes. Having an unknown factor like Maddock around must be seriously messing with the girl's head. No wonder the maid looked ready to chew nails.
"Well, he's not here now. He's gone to find Bosh's book. If it smells half as bad as he does it'll be an easy job. You don't trust him do you?"
"For once we agree on something, Insect man" The maid spoke briefly before going back to her disdainful inspection of the room.
"Well The Master trusts him, even if we don't. That has to count for something" Said Lady Eustace
"We'll see. First off he has to bring the book back. Then we'll see if we can trust him" said the bug man.