Gray's POV
I woke up feeling stiff and very tired, it felt like I had fallen back, hit my head and passed out. I blinked a few times trying to adjust my eyes to the light, and inwardly cursed at what I remembered from the prous night, that...dammit, I had seen Lucy and she seemed almost terrified to see me, I mean I guess I couldn't blame her, we did kick her out of the guild, but I explained things to her, so I don't understand why she acted the way she did.
I jumped up and went over to the tents to wake the others up, they grumbled a few incoherent words but once they saw the look on my face they immediately grew serious.
'Is something wrong Gray' Erza asked with a raised eyebrow, she looked around to see if anything was amiss, but ultimately decided that our campground looked untouched, except by us, of course. 'I...saw Lucy last night' I mumbled, I watched as their faces grew into that of a shocked expression as they started throwing questions at me.
'Are you serious' Erza asked as she got up into my face I nodded my response, it was true, I knew it wasn't a dream, it was definitely Lucy that I had been talking to last night.
'Where is she? Is she here somewhere? Why is she in the forest? Did she say where she's been this whole time? Natsu yelled at me, I pushed him away and told them both to calm down while I tried to recollect the conversation Lucy and I had last night.
'She said she lives nearby, I don't know where though, she didn't say anything, I asked her to come home and explained how the dark guild took control of us, but she said she had a different dream now, but that she's not angry at us' I told them sadly, they didn't want give up hope though, neither did I, I wanted my friend back, I was devastated when we all came to again, only to find out that we had basically abandoned Lucy.
'Okay then, if what you say is true Gray, she must be taking up residence somewhere close to here, we will find her I'm sure of it, Happy, can you fly around and see if you can find anything' Erza asked, taking control of the search in under a minute. 'Aye Sir' Happy exclaimed and with that he was off.
'Do you really think we'll see Luce again' Natsu asked as soon as Happy left us to go search, 'I'm sure we will' I told him, his spirit was lifted and he was happy again, I never liked to see my family sad, and even though I don't think Natsu is exactly my best friend it's even weirder to see him unhappy, and ever since Lucy left he's been nothing but depressed. I know she said she didn't want to come home, but at least seeing her alive and well should make him feel better.
After about ten minutes Happy came flying back with a huge grin on his face, which I assumed to be a good sign. 'Did you find anything Happy' Natsu asked as he jumped up from his place on the ground, Erza and myself leaning in closer to hear.
'Aye' Happy said 'About a mile off towards the west there's a HUGE treehouse, I snuck up and looked through the windows I heard people talking, it was a girl and two males from what I could make out, the girl sounded like Lucy to! But there were a lot of viewing lacrimas as well, now can I have a fish' Happy said enthusiastically, at that Natsu took a fish out of a bag and handed it to his little blue partner.
'Okay, now I am almost certain we will find Lucy, Happy will you please lead the way' Erza asked as she pointed a sword towards the west. 'Aye Sir' Happy said as he munched his fish and we all headed off, following after the blue flying cat.
I really hope we can see Lucy again, I know I saw her last night but it was so brief and she looked so confused and terrified, I hated seeing that look on her face, I just hoped she actually forgave us and understood, knowing her she is probably feeling guilty about what happened to the guild, but in truth it wasn't her fault, it was that psychotic father of hers, can't that old geezer see that he's ruining his daughters life?
Thirty minutes later we arrived at a clearing, looking around it wasn't anything special, that is until we looked up, we looked in awe at the sight in front of us, there we huge tree houses complete with sky bridges, it was truly magnificent, I wasn't really into wooden creations but this was a whole other matter, we got silent as we heard voices coming from one of the buildings, we looked over to see a blonde girl stepping out, yelling something inaudible to someone who we guessed was inside.
'That has to be Lucy' I whispered to my three companions, she had the same tattoo as Lucy and as if on que she turned, my three companions gasping in shock, 'thats Lucy' Natsu whisper-yelled, she had on a light blue dress, tight fitting at the top and flaring at the bottom, white sneakers, her hair was down and she was wearing gold bangles on each wrist, what was weird though is that her tattoo that I'm sure was black last night was now a light pink, she was smiling so she must be happy.
'Are you coming' she yelled as she threw down a ladder and climbed down, a familiar grunt was heard and the door opened yet again, we gasped in shock, the person who stepped out was none other than the excommunicated Laxus freaking Dreyar.
'What the hell is she doing with that bastard' Natsu asked angrily, he wanted to do the same thing I wanted to, which was to go out there and kick his ass, but Erza held us back, we decided to follow the two, to see where they were headed and to listen to what they spoke about.
'So Laxus, how long do you plan on staying here' Lucy asked, almost grumpily if you ask my opinion on the matter. 'As long as I want Blondie, you said I could last night' Laxus smirked back. 'Besides your letting that blue haired weirdo stay to train you, so I thought I could come and watch' Laxus added. So Lucy's training, no wonder she has all those swords and looks so toned, I watched as her tattoo turned red and she smacked Laxus on the back of the head and hissed at him, I resisted the urge to laugh and I could tell Natsu was trying hard to hold it in as well.
'You can't watch me while I train with him, you'll distract me' she hissed, he smirked, they walked in silence for a while, it had been about thirty minutes since we all started walking and they still hadn't noticed us yet.
'So blondie, I don't think I heard what you've been training yourself on, I know you used that sleeper shit to break that dude out of jail, but what else you got' Laxus asked...wait, Lucy broke someone out of jail, no way, is Laxus right in the head? There was no way Lucy would ever do something like that...
'What is this idiot talking about, Lucy wouldn't do that, right' Natsu asked, Happy of course gave his signature 'Aye Sir' I said ' No way in hell' and Erza just shrugged like she could really care less.
'Its called Sleeper Magic, I taught myself crash magic, but it's very weak right now, my celestial magic of course, I'm going to learn heavenly body magic, and I'm teaching myself to have the ability to take over my spirits magic so I can fight alongside them' I hear Lucy say happily.
'Shes been busy, hasn't she' I wondered out loud. 'I'm quite impressed she was able to teach herself those things, it's impressive, she seems very strong now, not that she wasn't before, but her magical aura feels stronger' Erza stated as she kept her eyes locked on her/our targets.
'I wanna fight her' Natsu said with his version of an evil laughed, I rolled my eyes at him and we continued on, I was in awe over what Lucy could do, she had demonstrated her crash magic for Laxus, although it wasn't very strong she still managed to put a crack in a boulder, if she kept working on it, she would definitely get better, throughout the whole walk her spirits would pop out at random times, it seemed like they did it a lot though, Lucy wasn't even phased by it, they found a deer once and Lucy used a spell called 'sleep wave' which made it fall asleep, I about lost it at that, it was hilarious, it was standing, completely aware one second and the next it was out cold.
'I'm pretty sure that's what she used on me last night' I whispered to my companions, 'it just looks like it puts people to sleep' I added on, incase they were so idiotic they wouldn't understand, my explanation was mainly for Natsu and Happy who were now nodding furiously in understanding.
Suddenly a growl rumbled in front of us, we stopped walking as a large forest wyvern bounded out of the dense tree coverings. We were about to jump out and help, but to our surprise Lucy pushed Laxus away, 'sleeper wave- permanent nightmares' Lucy chanted. I don't know if I was in awe of what she just did or if I was scared, it was pretty cool, Erza, Natsu and Happy were all wide eyed, so was Laxus, amazingly enough, who would of thought that the big bad Laxus Dreyar would be shocked.
The wyvern had immediately fallen over and now looked like it was sleeping but having thee worst nightmare in the world, if they could even dream anyways, and from what she said, it wouldn't be waking up ever again.. I guess that would be a good power to have though, but with power like that comes a lot of responsibility.
The two blonde travelers continued on their way with the four of us traveling at a safe distance behind them, they talked about what Laxus had been up to ever since he got excommunicated from Fairy Tail and also about Lucy's time at the guild, the happy times, before she got kicked out. Surprisingly Laxus seemed like a good travel companion.
'So you said you do jobs for the council, how does that work, and also you said something happened to you a couple months ago, what happened to you' Laxus asked, we were almost to the city of legarion, a small town with one market to sustain its handful of people. She works for the council to? Jeez just what has Lucy been doing all this time? I wondered to myself.
'Just odd jobs, usually delivery to other countries, taking care of things they don't want to deal with, sometimes guilds, and sometimes they hire me to take down minor dark guilds, the matter involving different countries usually ends up with some stupid idiot bringing illegal things into Fiore, I was promoted to a commander in the army actually, the forest we were just in, a little to the north to be precise is where my troops keep up their barrier, that's why I try to keep people away' Lucy says, Laxus is dumbfounded, I'm dumbfounded, I'm pretty sure Erza, Natsu and Happy are freaking dumbfounded, but is she done talking, no, she's not.
'Though I think those two council members that I've been spying on are planning something, it's to suspicious that they are meeting with just each other, I'm no good at lip reading but I can make out certain words, I'm assuming it involves the barrier the magic council placed on the border, which can't be good, and finally about the other matter, as I said before, it was a difficult time for me and I'm not ready to share with people yet' she says, it doesnt look like she'll say anymore, I take a breath that I had been holding, but wait, what did she say about council members and two of them secretly meeting, yes that doesn't sound right at all, it does sound suspicious.
'Jeez Blondie, I didn't know you were so tied to the council, that explains why I was confused when I looked at my map and thought I was lost, I didn't think it was possible for me to mistakenly get so close to the border of Fiore, God no wonder I was confused, and I'm sorry for prying, you can talk when your ready' I hear Laxus say as he places a hand on top of Lucy's head and messes up her hair, Lucy giggles and her tattoo turns pink...happiness? I wonder if that tattoo changes colors due to her emotions. I'd have to ask Levy about it when we returned to the guild..anyways, back to the matter at hand...
'Can you believe what she said' I asked my team, Natsu nodded his head, 'those council bastards are always pulling something, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole lot of them were in on a big conspiracy' Natsu said unhappily, probably unhappy that Erza wouldn't allow him to run out and see her, she knew we were hearing things we weren't suppose to and she didnt want to take a risk of Lucy getting angry with us.
'I agree that there is something going on at the council, as for the commander thing I think I want to go to Era and ask them about it myself, once we ask them about it I want to come back here and see what Lucy knows about the council, also we should inform master about this, but as of now I don't trust communication lacrimas, can Happy fly back to the guild Natsu, to explain this to master?' Erza said, I told her it sounded like a good idea, we should see if she's telling the truth about doing jobs and such for them and then come and confront her about it. Natsu and Happy complained, but Happy reluctantly agreed to go to the guild and he'd meet us back here with Wendy and Carla in about three days at the most, with our plan set and recorded into Erza's mind we all headed off, Happy going the direction of the guild and our next stop...Era.
