"Welcome to Fairy Tail!"
Those words stuck to her just as much as the unrecognisable thoughts that she had been hearing for the longest time. She was finally part of a guild and one that wouldn't take advantage of her. Despite the rough first greetings, she was finally content.
Because of her new recruitment, the guild had decided to throw a party in celebration, although the guild didn't really need a reason to party at all, with how often they did so in between missions. It seems that they wanted to cherish every moment of what could be of their short lives. After all, with how risky their missions could get, there's no absolute answer that they will come back alive…
Or it may simply just be that they were a loud, rowdy bunch that enjoyed partying…
Either way, it was definitely going to take some time to settle in.
"So, newbie. You must be pretty tough considering how you managed to make even Erza uneasy. We should have a battle sometime." A pink haired boy said upon wrapping his arm around the others neck in a friendly gesture, a wide grin spreading across his face.
"The names Natsu. Fai-"
Before he could continue, he was interrupted by Gray, who didn't seem all that impressed with the Dragon Slayers antics.
"Hey Flame Brain, quit bothering her. She doesn't need to be freaked out on the first day."
"Oh, don't get your panties in a twist, Ice Princess. I'm just chatting with her is all."
That was when the situation escalated for the worst. The cool-headed male was slowly losing his temper, and it was clear by his expression.
"What did you call me?"
"You heard me… Ice Princess..."
"Hey, knock it off!" A loud yet grumbling voice appeared from the crowd. Turning to identify who it was, it happened to have been a raven-haired male with piercings covering his eyebrows, nose and chin.
"Leave the lady alone, especially you..." He began, pointing a finger directly at Natsu. "Maybe she doesn't want to fight. Haven't you ever thought about that?"
It had been clear that he wasn't one of the usual hyperactive males that was usually found in the guild. In fact, judging by the glare he gave to the two individuals beside her, it was apparent that those three were like siblings, they always fought a childish fight but still cared for one another. Perhaps it was best to get ahead of them before this fight could escalate, with her right in the middle of it.
"It... It's okay. I don't mind… Whatever this is." She added rather hesitantly judging by the hesitance in her voice as well as the slightly uncomfortable look she held within her expression.
Funnily enough, that was the truth. She wasn't a fighter at all. In fact, she detested the idea of using violence for every problem but she still had abilities that were beyond saving her from a peaceful life. She was a mage after all, and now a member of Fairy Tail.
Gajeel merely just shrugged his shoulders quite casually, as if he didn't care about what trouble the girl got into. Sure, he intervened beforehand, but perhaps that was just out of the fact that she was new, and most likely had no idea about any of the hyperactive members, or even the ones that she would have to stay away unless she wanted to get into trouble.
"Well I want to know what she is able to do!" Natsu exclaimed in protest rather excitedly.
"Then let's finish a celebration and then I will assign your group a mission. Don't worry though, I will make sure that it isn't too strenuous since it seems that this is your first one. Right?"
Mirajane intervened into the conversation, giving the young blonde a calm and subtle glance, mainly to keep her from panicking over the suddenness of the situation.
Freya had been nervous about all of this, mainly because she didn't want to let anyone down, or more so, see any of her new-found friends get hurt. After all, with living a life of loneliness, the uncertainty with working with others came with the territory.
"Sounds good."
A smile edged on her face momentarily by the thoughtfulness that the white-haired women gave to her. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. After all, from what she had seen and heard from some of the locals, they had been made out to be monsters in human form but in reality, they seem to be genuinely nice.
However, her daze came to an end rather quickly, since the dragon slayer leapt on her in a cheerful fashion from her agreement on taking on a job with Team Natsu. The weight of the male caught the girl off guard as she collapsed to the ground with the hot head on top. In fact, it was safe to say that it wasn't only Natsu that was feeling pretty hot. The blondes face had turned crimson red, her mouth parting slightly in order to scream, let alone speak, yet no such words came out.
An arrange of teasing comments and cheering came from the rest of the guild, the voices echoing across the room forcing the girl to cover her face with her hands with true embarrassment.
"Shut up!" The pink haired fire mage yelled out, only to realize where his priorities were meant to be given towards.
"Ah, sorry!" He yelped, scrambling off of her form in a rush before reaching out a hand in order to help her up onto her feet.
It didn't too long belong before Freya's senses returned back to reality, allowing the torturing variation of cheers and flirtatious whistling to come to a dull end. The colour remained on her face, her mouth not even moving to give even a 'thank you' for the boy's consideration but yet she didn't even have to do so. Natsu had already known deep down that she had been at least thankful for his help, despite landing her in an awkward situation.
"A-Anyway, let's get the celebration started! Mirajane, can you get us some drinks?"
"Right away!"
That had been the last question that was asked during the night. The rest of the evening was just a matter of insanity. Drunken singing and dancing had came from it all, leading to the usual celebration filled with laughter and glee just as any other party hard group would find themselves in.
However, this could only last for so long.
Soon enough, the celebration came to an end, night time came to be and everyone had decided to go home for the night, or at least those who hadn't already passed out in the guild from drinking an indescribable amount of drink. Of course, Freya wasn't a drinker at all, but rather she spent most of the night outdoors and under the stars. As soon as dawn came about would be the first of a wide series of events that would bring them closer as friends, even family. But perhaps there was the possibility that it would even open even more questions about who she was, and whom she was to trust…
Several weeks had passed since her involvement with the rumbustious guild became a thing. The frail, blonde haired female became rather fond of her new friends, even coming to the point that she was enthusiastic in going on jobs, even if it meant that her life was at risk. However, the fun was soon to end, leading to the greatest dilemma of her life.
A mission had finally come up for Team Natsu. A nearby town had been said to be strangely abandoned, almost like a ghost town. However, the strange thing about it was aside from the fact that the person whom had sent the request was not to be seen, but that it wasn't entirely empty. There had been some sort of eerie vibe, as if what had been caused was by a powerful force that were still around, possibly watching their every move. It was clear that it made Happy quite nervous and on-guard.
Yeah, as if ghosts were a thing, the blonde zodiac mage thought to herself. If only she could actually convince herself effectively, judging by her legs that trembled like jelly.
"Alright, it's probably best to split up for the time being and meet back up soon. That way we can cover more ground that way…" Erza explained, her glance moving over to the lower classed mages, as well as the new-comer who despite all that time, still remained as a big mystery to the guild.
Of course, no-one had a problem with the plan, or more so no one was brave enough to reject the red-head's plan, considering the swords woman had quite the reputation, especially amongst Natsu and Gray who received Erza's out lash most of the time due to their arguments.
"Sounds good, but will you be alright?" Lucy asked the green-eyed mage, whom simply gave a nod, a smile of reassurance sticking in place of her pale, dainty features.
"I'll be fine…"
But as Freya was about to find out, this wasn't going to be the case…
As instructed, the group went their own individual ways, each taking a separate route to find out what exactly was going on. But as they had predicted from their arrival, there was no one around. Most of the homes were checked and nothing but wreckage was left at the scene.
Were they attacked?
The thought seemed likely, but the next question was…
Who could do something like this?
Upon leaving one of the premises, the sound of a slamming window was to show the mysterious mage that there was at least something around, but they haven't shown themselves yet.
The loud noise made her jump, a shock rushing up her spine as if a cold gust of wind had latched onto her back, freezing it into submission.
"Just a window…" She muttered to herself to calm herself down, a deep breath exhaled in relief that there wasn't anything. For all she knew, the town could be a literal ghost town, holding the spiritual visitor's captive for all eternity.
But she wasn't alone…
Within the blink of an eye, the entire world around her went grey. Nothing but shades of black and white as far as the eye could see. Was is supposed to be scheduled for rain today? That would explain why her environment had a dull, chilling vibe to it, and why she could still see the variation of hues of her skin. To be honest, with being all alone again, perhaps her insecurities were arising again, making her try to come up with the least scariest reasons behind the phenomena.
"Don't worry, my child. I won't hurt you..."
Those words… That voice…
Wait… It couldn't be…
Her glance shifted to the side, her head slowly turning to voice the source of the familiar tone that once occupied her dreams and her imagination.
But now she had come to acknowledge that the voice she had been hearing for so long wasn't a part of her driven to insanity by her sudden case of amnesia, but rather, took the place of a human form with seemingly gentle pitch-black eyes that gave a perfect complexion to his noir hair.
"Who…? How?" Just these two simple words had escaped Freya's lips, the female absolutely flabbergasted by this discovery. It was already enough to take in, but she was sure to get an overload of information within moments of their first meet-up.
A humorous smile eased on his face, clearly realizing what she had mentioned by such vague questions.
"It seems as if you have lost your memory. I will have to introduce myself. My name is Zeref. As for how I know you young one, you will have to wait and see what the future brings…"
Although his voice was rather calm and comforting, she couldn't help but sense malicious intent behind his words. What did he mean wait? Who was he?
Who was she?
"Just for today, I will let you go this time around, however, next time, I will give you the choice of coming along with me. You don't belong in this world, so I will send some of my creations to come and find you. As for that…" He stated, the kind smile he gave turned into a cold frown, which now emphasised his quiet, frightening tone.
"…Until then, do not say a word to the guild. I'd rather that they weren't involved in any of this."
Yet, she wasn't given much time to answer. A blink of a pair of wavering green eyes was all that was needed to return colour into the world, or whatever colour was still around at that point. There was no way that a regular human could disappear just like that. Maybe he was just a ghost and he was merely just getting into her head. What other logical reasoning was there after all?
"Hey… Hey!"
The voice echoed around her, as if it was only just a thought, but the voice quickly grew clearer by the second, a faint echoing now turned into screaming in order to grab her attention. It worked, but not in the way that others might presume.
With a jilt of the head, the girl's instincts came in, her fist clashing with something soft, yet it still made a cracking sound on contact. The screaming became rather distant after so. It was only then that she had realized that whilst spaced out, she had accidently punched Natsu in the face.
"Oi, oi! What the hell was that for!? Did you catch something off of Gray?" Natsu screamed out in his usual hot-headed fashion while rubbing the red mark on his face. That really was going to hurt tomorrow. Unfortunately, his comment received an immediately response by the ice-mage, whom had a comical cross shaped vein popping on the side of his forehead.
"What was that, Flame Brain!?"
Maybe it was best to intercept quickly, otherwise Erza will catch on…
"Easy guys, I'm sorry about that. I never expected you guys to be so close by, especially with the searching and all. Did you find anything at all?"
The two paused briefly by Freya's comment, frowns all around.
"Nothing…" The two said one after the other.
"It's been completely empty as far as we can see… Maybe we were just sent on a wild goose chase… Although, I take it that you at least seen something to be dazed out like that."
Without even speaking a single word, the strange man's words had rung in her head like a soothing alarm.
'Until then, do not say a word to the guild.'
Despite making up the presumption that he wasn't real at all, maybe it was best to keep it a secret for now. It was better to remain cautious for the time being, considering how it seemed suspicious that someone knew about her past life. Perhaps he had something to do with the disappearance of everyone from the surreal town.
"Don't worry, it was nothing." She quickly rejected the boys comment with a cheerful smile. "I just thought that a memory was coming back is all."
"Hey, that's great! Let's get going and find everyone else..." Natsu began, the blue exceed behind him continuing the sentence.
"Before the ghosts come and find us…"
Her inner self breathing a sigh of relief. At least they had fallen for her white lie. But seriously, that's what the cat was worried about? If only they knew about the trouble she had just gotten into just then. Even so, it didn't even seem that the world was moving in his presence. Maybe the guild will figure something out when the time comes… Or, at least she hoped it would come down to that…
