Chapter Four

Lucy's POV

It's been two months since Sword Art Online was declared a death game. In that time, no one has found the first floor boss room. However, there was a meeting being held on it because, supposedly, someone found out where the boss room is. That's where Natsu and I were heading.

Having just joined the guild Fairy Tail, our group of friends decided to branch and explore before forming a party. Apparently, Erza wanted to team up with Gray, who agreed saying that,"If I spend anymore time with Flame Brain, I might catch his disease". So I was left to look after a motion sick Dragon Slayer all by myself.

"How do you get motion sickness from a warp crystal?" I complained through gritted teeth. Natsu gave a grunt that translated to: I-don't-know-but-you-have-to-help-me.

The boy was slung over my back, his feet dragging since he was a couple inches taller than I was. His head lolled over my shoulder, almost slipping. I had to tighten my hold on his muscular arms to make sure he didn't collapse on the ground as I struggled toward the amphitheatre.

"Is carrying you really necessary?" I grumbled as his chin dug into my collarbone. He whimpered again, his breath disturbing my hair. "You're so heavy."

"Nnurgh," he grumbled.

"That's not even close to a word," I sighed, but I felt my spirits lift as I saw the entrance to the amphitheatre where the meeting was being held. "We're close!"

I sped up, spurred on by the fact that I would be able to put Natsu down. Checking the time on the clock tower nearby, I saw the meeting was about to start. "Oh no, we're going to be late!"

I ended up practically dragging Natsu down the street, hurrying into the ancient looking amphitheatre. They started just as Natsu and I took our seats, Natsu just kind of flopping down.

"Okay, now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!" A man with blue hair was standing on the stage, addressing the crowd. "So anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming, good to see you."

"My name is Diavel, and in this game, the job I rolled is knight," Diavel pointed to himself and the crowd laughed.

"Dude, there's no job system in this game," someone from the crowd shouted.

"Do you guy want to hear this or not?" Diavel waved his hands for quiet. "Right, anyway here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today."

The crowd turned serious. I leaned forward. If what this guy was saying is true, the floor could be cleared in a matter of days.

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to floor two," Diavel continued. "The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game!"

"The fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?" I bobbed my head, seeing others in the crowd do the same. Natsu sat up, having recovered from his motion sickness. There was a spattering of clapping.

"Okay! Glad to hear you're all with me on this. Now, let's figure out how we're going to beat the boss," Diavel spread his hands. "First off, We'll team up into parties of six."

Natsu and I glanced at each other, silently agreeing that only the two of us need to be a party. With our skills, Natsu alone would be enough.

"A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties," Diavel talked over the low murmuring as the other players formed parties.

Would you like to join Natsu's party?

I joined his party and saw his HP bar appear in the upper left of my vision. Diavel started talking again. "Alright, looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then-"

"Hold up a sec!" A voice interrupted. My head swiveled toward the noise in surprise. A gruff looking man with spiky orange hair jumped down the steps, landing in front of the crowd. "My name's Kibaou, ya got that?"

"Before we take on the boss I wanna get something off my chest," he said. Putting his hands on his hips,"We all know about the 2,000 people who died, yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to them right now!"

Kibaou pointed an accusing finger to the crowd. I felt Natsu stiffen. Diavel spoke up. "Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the one's who're ex beta testers, right?"

I looked at Natsu from under my bangs. He was frowning down at Kibaou. "Course I mean them! The day this stupid ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners!"

I saw Natsu make a move to stand up, probably to protest, but I pulled on his arm, signaling to wait. Kibaou continued his rant. "They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we were nothing."

"Hell, I bet there's some of them here! Come on out, beta testers!" This time I had to use force to keep Natsu from going down there and giving Kibaou a good whacking, although I kind of wanted to go down there and Lucy Kick this Kibaou in the face as he continued.. "We should make them apologize to us. And we should make them give out the money and the items they got! Ya can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?"

"Can I say something?" A tall man with chocolate colored skin stood up with his hand raised and went down to the stage. He stood two heads taller than Kibaou.

"Hey, name's Agil. Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page," Agil said in a deep voice, sounding calm. "You're saying the beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em, and you want 'em to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't," Kibaou glared at him. Agil reached into his pocket and pulled out a brown book.

"The item store has these for free. It's a guide book, you got one didn't you?"

"Sure I got one, what about it?" Kibaou glanced at the book.

"Ya know who was handing these out? The ex beta testers," Agil clarified. The crowd murmured. When I looked at Natsu for confirmation, he caught my look and nodded. "Listen up, everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lot's of players still died."

"I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I wanna find out how to beat the boss," Agil reasoned. I nodded in agreement with him. He turned back to Kibaou, giving him a cool look.

With a whine in his throat, Kibaou went back to seat with a grumpy look. Agil sat down again as well. Diavel looked relieved to be able to continue. "Okay, can we get back to the meeting now?"

"For info on the boss, it's all in here," Diavel held up the Guide Book. "The latest issue of the guide book you just heard about."

"Seriously?" I mumbled in surprise.

"According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruined Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars. When the last one turns red, he switches to a curved, sword type weapon called a talwart. He can change his patterns of attack, too," Diavel read. He can change his patterns of attack?

"That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the XP. And, whoever gets an item, gets to keep it," Diabel closed the book and put it away. "Any objections?"

"Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning," Diavel swiped his arm to the side. "Meeting adjourned, people!"

I got up to leave, Natsu following after with his hands behind his head. I sighed. "What do we do now?"

"Let's get some food, I'm starving," Natsu suggested, but I shook my head.

"You're always hungry, why don't we just go back to the guild or something?" I tried to think of something fun to do.

"Ooh! Follow me!" Natsu grabbed my hand and pulled me through the streets, narrowly avoided crashing into a small girl, three teenage boys, a cat, and a cart full of cabbages.

"Where are we going?" I wailed as I tried not to hit yet another player.

"You'll see!" Natsu turned around just enough to grin at me. My heart stuttered as I blushed.

We were on the outskirts of town, heading toward the forest. The sun was still high in the sky, birds were flying around, and suddenly we were under the cover of trees. Light streamed through the leaves, casting a soft glow over the forest floor.

We were going deep into the forest. A massive tree was said to grow in the heart of the forest, the Tenrou tree, and the Fairy Tail guild had claimed it as their sacred place. Maybe that's where we were headed.

Our feet pounding dirt, we sped through the forest, and soon the Tenrou tree was in view. It stood at least as tall as a skyscraper, casting a shadow that covered half the forest. I felt Natsu loosen his death grip on my hand, slowing down to a stop at the base of the massive tree.

"We're gonna climb it," Natsu announced.

"Excuse me?" Had I heard him correctly? Was he insane? Was he joking?

"They say this tree has the best view on the whole floor, and I've done it before, I'll show you the way," Natsu started stretching and warming up.

I copied Natsu's movements, touching my toes, windmilling my arms, and rolling my neck. He jogged over to the tree and jumped. He grabbed a handhold with one arm before finding another one and pulling himself up.

I tried to follow suit, but I didn't have much experience climbing trees, and it was slow going. By the time I reached the first branch, I was huffing and puffing.

I crawled into the branch and collapsed there, my sore arms dangling. "Can we take- huff - a break?"

Natsu looked down from above on a higher branch. "Suit yourself. I'm going straight to the top!"

I heard him move away, going farther up the Tenrou tree and away from my resting spot. Sitting up a little, I looked at my surroundings. There was a swirl in the branch that looked like a good place to sit down, as it was shaped like a crescent.

I crawled along the thick branch, which was just wide enough so that I would fall if I walked. Curling up in the nook, it was much more comfortable than I had initially thought. In fact, it would be a good place to read.

I opened my inventory and scrolled through. I had recently met a small, blue haired girl named Levy who was just as obsessed with reading as I was. Probably more, actually. She had loaned me a couple of her favorite books, so I brought out the one that looked the most appealing.

I cracked it open and read, totally forgetting my original purpose in the Tenrou tree.

Natsu's POV

Natsu stopped climbing for a moment to check on Lucy. Sitting down on a good sized branch that could support three horses, he leaned down and was only slightly surprised to see her curled up with a book, eyes flitting back and forth as she read.

That's my Lucy, Natsu thought affectionately before grabbing a hand hold again. Always so weird.

Thanks as always to people who newly favorited or followed and reviewed:

Mike Uzumaki-Heartfilla

SkyLine1912

MegByte

Rhianna Park

A Sleeptalking Demigod

I plan on the next chapter to come out on Jan. 30, so every chapter takes ten days.

Fly on,

Viv

(idk man, i just write)