Chapter 4: Wolf's Howl

RECAP: Lucy laughed as well. For the next hour or so, she and Styxx talked, found out about each other, and unknowingly strengthened the love between them. Lucy was already forgetting her old guild.

"Um, Styxx, where are we anyways?" Lucy asked, she had just gotten dressed and now she and her new friend Styxx were walking down a hall. Styxx was apparently taking her to meet the master of his guild.

"We're in my guild building, and our guild is in the port city of Hargeon." Styxx told, directing Lucy through a door.

"Okay. But i didn't think Hargeon had a guild, even after the seven years that I missed." Lucy explained. She was confused, she was sure that Hargeon didn't have a guild, or even allow one. "I wonder why they would allow a guild here?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

"That's because the last time I was here, I think about eight years now, me and Natsu, the kid with the scarf, blew up the city."

"You didn't blow up the city! It's still here, we're in it right now!"

"Only about a third of the city, not the entire city."

"How'd you do that?" Styxx was eager to find out. He had never hears anything about this before, even though he had been born and raised in Hargeon.

"We... we crashed a giant cruise liner." Lucy looked down at her feet now, ashamed of herself.

"That... that's amazing!" Styxx declared. He wished he could've been there to see that.

"Uh, sure, okay." Lucy was amazed herself. Not because of the memory, but by what Styxx had just said. He's weird. If everyone else is the same as him, then this will be interesting. Lucy thought, but that's not necessarily bad. It can't be any more hectic than Fairy Tail.

Lucy and Styxx walked down the long hallway for a bit longer when Lucy asked, "So, you're guild, what's it's name? When was it created?"

Styxx answered Lucy, keeping his eyes forward, wary of something ahead. "Well, our guild was created only about- Duck!"

Styxx pushed Lucy to the ground then got on top, covering her. He had just gotten on to the floor when a metal chair flew over him, barely missing his head. Loud yelling could be heard from the room they were in front of. The door was open, and you could see two men arguing.

Lucy recognized one of them to be Totomaru, the fire mage from the old Element Four team. He seemed to wear pretty much all the same clothes, and even wore the same other man she didn't recognize however. He had short, somewhat long, blue hair, tied into a short ponytail. He had some hair come down the sides of face, framing it. He wore a faded denim vest over a white v-neck t-shirt. Lucy could tell that he wore a fishnet shirt under the white shirt. The fishnet sleeves came down right before his wrists, and the hole for the head right at the base of his neck. Other than that all he had on was a pair of blue jeans and black leather boots.

As the blond girl stared at the two fighting men, she felt something heavy on top of her. She looked up to see Styxx on top of her, glaring at Totomaru and the other man. Before she could ask for him to get off her, he quickly stood up and offered her a hand. She took it and was easily lifted up.

"Sorry about that Lucy. Let me handle these two real fast." Styxx walked into the room, and announced his arrival with an "Ah-hem". The two men looked over to Styxx, who was still glaring at them, his hands folded. As soon as the two men saw him, they ran to the back of the room, holding on to each other for dear life.

"What are you two doing?" Styxx demanded. He gave Totomaru and the other man a look that would give Erza a run for her money.

It was the blue-haired man that answered first, "N-nothing, Styxx. Honest. Just some rough housing between friends." Lucy could practically feel the fear radiating out of the man, even in the hall way.

Then Totomaru spoke, agreeing with blue-haired man, "Y-yeah. No trouble. We're just having some fun." Totomaru tried to back up even more but ran into the wall behind him.

Styxx took a single step forward and both of the men yelped and slid to the floor, both looking as if they were going to wet themselves. This was when Styxx asked them, "With a metal chair?" The white-haired teen gave them both a look that gave them a glare even more intense then before.

Totomaru passed out from the glare, leaving his quivering companion to fight for himself. The blue-haired man quickly responded to the glare with a whimper. It was then that he saw Lucy out in the hall and said, "You shouldn't be worrying about us, you should be taking your cute guest to the master."

At this, Styxx realized that Lucy was still in the hallway. He pondered what to do for a few moments then said, "All right, I'll be back later to deal with you two." Styxx walked back to the hall, hearing a muffled sigh from the still conscious man.

When he reached Lucy he said, "Sorry you had to see that. Those two are always getting into fights." Apologizing, Styxx closed the door behind him.

Maybe this place isn't so different after all. Lucy thought, at least it won't take long to get used to this place then.

Lucy and Styxx started to walk down the hall again, nearing the end now. When they reached the end, Styxx stopped in front of a door and spoke to Lucy, "Now's the time to ask any questions. Once you go in, it might be a while before any get answered."

"Why's that?"

"She's quite the talker." Styxx said in an exasperated voice.

Lucy laughed at this, then asked, "Come on, really, what's the reason?"

"No, really. She talks... a lot." Styxx put such emphasis on a lot that Lucy couldn't help but believe him. "She will say anything and everything that comes to her mind."

"Wow, okay, well, question time. How old is your guild?"

"Only about 1 month, Hargeon's city council isn't much of a guild lover."

"Sorry 'bout that, by the way. Next question, what's the name of the guild?"

"The guild is called Wolf's Howl. Our crest is the head of a howling wolf with a full moon in the back ground."

"Oh, really? That's actually kinda cool. Okay, question number 3, what kinda magic does your master use?"

"My master is a celestial mage like you, but she can also use air magic. And, if you were wondering, she used to be one of the Ten Wizard Saints, but that was about thirty years ago."

"She's a celestial mage too! What spirits does she have? How many?"

"Sorry, she doesn't use her spirits that often so I can't tell you."

"Oh." Lucy sighed.

"You might get to ask her when she finds out your a celestial mage as well. She loves her spirits, and always talks about how wonderful they are, but that's about it."

"Okay. I think I don't have any more questions. Well... I do want to know what kind of magic you use." Lucy asked. The blond had been wondering ever since their talk in the room she awoke in.

"I'm sure you'll find out. Eventually." Styxx said annoyingly. He was smiling at Lucy as he said this.

"Fine." Lucy puffed. She wanted to know so badly.

"Let's go in, my master is right through here." Styxx reached for the door handle, turned it, and pushed.

Inside was an office, similar to Makarov's. And, even though kinda cliche, there was a fireplace behind the desk. On the left wall, there were only bookshelves. The right wall was all one big window overlooking a courtyard. They were on the top story of the three story building. There were two chairs in front of the window, both were very inviting. In between the two was a small coffee table with a small lamp on it.

The desk was slightly back from the center of the room. There was a large circular rug on the floor. On the desk was a clutter of papers, and in the chair was a small old lady, snoring loudly.

"Master!" Styxx walked over to his master and poked her head. After that he "gently" shook her. "Master! Master wake up!"

As Styxx violently shook his master awake, he was punched in the face and fell back, dropping his master to the ground. Styxx landed on his back and the small old lady landed on top of him. She, however, landed on her feet. The small master quietly walked off of the teenager and stood in front of her desk. Styxx got up and walked over to Lucy.

"She's awake now!" He smiled at the blond and all she could do was smile and nod as she sweat dropped.

Lucy was able to get a good look of Styxx's master now. She was small, only about as tall as her old master. Her hair was in a tight bun, and was a very faded pink.

Lucy whispered to Styxx, "I thought you said she doesn't stop talking?"

Styxx answered vey simply, "Just wait for it."

Lucy looked back to the old lady and thanked her. "Thank you for taking care of me while I was ill. I must've been a great burden." Lucy then bowed.

The old master looked up at the young blond, "It's no trouble at all. Well, for our guild anyways. Or your old one." She added the last sentence bitterly. "I can't believe Makarov is really the master of a guild like that. How shameful."

"You know my old master?" Lucy asked.

"Hmph! Know him! We used to be lovers!" The pink haired lady screeched. At this, Styxx and Lucy's jaws fell. "What?" The woman asked. "Did he never talk about me?"

"N-no. He never talked about you, well... sober anyways." Lucy answered. Her old master, when ever drunk, would always talk about a fine young lady he knew.

"Well, that's better than nothing. But we have business to discuss." The small lady paused, "If you were to look at your hand, you would see that your guild mark is not there any longer." At this, Lucy looked at her hand and saw that it was, indeed, missing the mark. "Makarov, your old master, came here while you were unconscious and removed it. While he was here, he informed me about what happened at the guild and I informed him about what you attempted to do." Lucy hung her head down in shame.

"He was shocked when I told him. He said he wasn't going to tell anyone in the guild about what happened though, so you don't need to worry about that. He then told me some more grim news, nearly everyone in your old guild were overjoyed by your leaving." After saying that, Styxx and his master made faces of disgust. "Now Lucy, I wanted you to come to my office not to talk about the past, but the future. What is it you plan to do now?"

Lucy hadn't thought about that. She didn't know what to do. she could leave, travel and train, maybe join another guild. She could stay here and join this guild and train with them. She just didn't know what to do.

Seeing the look on the young girl's face, the master of Wolf's Howl suggested, "Why don't you join our guild, honey? We could always use another youngin' like you." The old lady smiled warmly at Lucy.

Seeing that, and thinking back on all that's happened, Lucy knew what she had to do.

Styxx looked at Lucy hopefully, wishing that she would decide to stay.

Lucy looked at the old mage's smile and said happily, "I would love to join!