Natsu PoV

Something rustles in the dense bushes behinds me, even though the air is completely still. I whip around and glare at the green leaves that are concealing a potential threat from my gaze.

"Who's there?" I growl. My stomach growls with my voice, and I realize that the thing in the bushes could also be food. Well that makes it easier. I'm beyond the state of simple hunger that is my constant companion. Now the hunger is an enemy, making my movements ungraceful and pitiful, but I'm also itching for a fight. The bush-creature could solve both of my problems at once.

Here I go! I leap over the bushes, my arms igniting as I soar into the air. In mid-flight I smash my hands together, forming a gun. Bang. I shoot bullets of fire into the dense leaves, hoping that they either expose the enemy or catch my meal. I land nimbly on the balls of my feet, although hunger makes me stagger a little to the left. The result of my attack is very satisfactory, the foliage catching fire and making it impossible for the creature to stay in hiding for very long. I resist the urge to whoop and drool at the thought of meat after days of surviving on tiny berries that possibly only made me hungrier.

Slowly the bushes disintegrate, leaving empty skeletons and giving me a clear view through the waist-high forest. My hope dissipates as I look as the mess of twigs and ashes. There's nothing there… It was for nothing. My stomach growls angrily, and I lose it. I scream insults, although there's no one to hear them. It continues growling and I want to punch something, to fight, but instead I can just scream at my hunger and hopelessness, at the prison this forest has formed around my mind, at the world. I scream and yell until my vocal chords feel like they've cracked, and then I fall silent, panting and clutching my chest.

"That's quite a pair of lungs you have there."

All of a sudden new smells flood my senses and I have the feeling I can't breathe. What is this? I couldn't smell anything this close before, but now I can feel a foreign presence at my back. I spin around and muster the person standing there calmly, although I'm shaking and I still can't breathe. Her deep purple eyes sweep over my body in one smooth loop, not stopping until they rest on my face and stay there for an uncomfortably long time. The graceful way she holds herself suggests about eighteen years of age, but her soft, childish features make her seem years younger. She's tall, almost as tall as me, and long, bright amethyst hair that contrasts the darkness of her eyes flows down to the small of her back.

"Are you lost?" Her voice is light, but there's a hint of a threat behind it. I try to find my voice, but I can't wrap my head around another person just standing there as if it's normal to not be completely lost in this endless forest.

"You seem to be hungry." She continues talking with her soft, cold voice. It grates against my ears like dirt, but at the same time it loosens the fear from my limbs.

"Y-Yeah…" I manage to choke out one word, but then I fall silent again. This isn't like me! Why am I like this, I should be yelling at the top of my lungs! I shouldn't be scared of a girl! But no matter how much I berate myself I can't bring my voice to talk to this person. The fact that she could sneak up on me without me being able to smell her makes me tremble. She must be really strong if I can't smell her until she's three feet away from me.

"Well then, come with me! You don't seem like a bad guy, so might as well feed you. I don't have anything with me, so you'll have to come to the guild." What? There's a guild in the middle of a forest? Or are we just so close to the edge that we can walk there? And what's with her? Just a few seconds ago she was completely cold towards me! The girl turns, her short, violet patterned skirt swishing back and forth. Only then do I notice that she's wearing a backpack. It looks homemade but sturdy, just like her clothes. It's fashioned like an open topped bag, but there's a flap fastened on top to prevent rain dirt from going in and things from falling out. In the middle of this flap there's a weird emblem imprinted, I guess it's the guild mark.

Should I follow her? She smells ok, very different from a bad guy, but I've learned that smell is not the only factor to judge when it comes to her. I decide that I might as well, because it really can't get any worse for me. I can always just run away if anything were to happen.

I start warily walking behind her, keeping my gaze fixed on the guild emblem on her pack. It's incredibly detailed, but at the same time simple and beautiful. In the center there's a compass rose made of a circle and eight triangles of varying size. To both the left and the right side of the compass are three thick lines that form wings. I want to ask the girl what it symbolizes, but I doubt she'd answer.

We walk in silence for a long time, the only sounds are those made by my sandals and her knee-high laced boots when they snap twigs and crush dry leaves. The undergrowth grows thicker; my trousers and exposed calves are accumulating more tiny scratches on top of those already there. The girl however seems to be fine. She's wearing thick, sturdy, thigh high stocks under her brown boots that protect her from the tiny thorns all around us.

When we finally escape the sea of thorn bushes we're standing in a clearing surrounded by huge green trees. The angle of the sun lights up the leaves in golden light, and the swirling dust is illuminated as it waltzes about in the air. Behind the tree line I can see dark waves of thorns and foliage, and where there should be a track of crushed bushes made by our shoes there is none. I turn to the girl.

"Where are we?" My voice returns to me with a crash.

"We're close to the entrance of my guild, Crimson Angel. We didn't want to join the league of official guilds, so we had to hide the guild hall from prying eyes. But we're not a dark guild!" she adds hastily, looking at my face with a troubled expression. I can only hesitantly accept this information. Where did they hide the guild? I should be able to smell it, but the only scents are those of the forest.

The girl seems to have caught me sniffing the air because she starts explaining.

"I have a special type of magic. It sucks in battle, but it's not weak. I can affect peoples' perception of the smells around them. I also have a great sense of smell, for example I can smell things that are miles away. But only if I want to, otherwise I would be overwhelmed!" She seems to be really chatty when she's not completely silent. Weird. And what does this have to do with me not being able to smell the guild? "My magic can be really long-ranged if I want it to be, so for the guild I just put a spell on it! It's really complicated to do because usually I have to have a specific thing or person in mind when I change their sense of smell, but I managed to make the guild 'unsmellable'. This means that anyone without the mark can't smell it. My friend did the same thing except with sight. That's why you can't see it. Crimson Angel has five sense mages, and I'm one of them! We don't really fight all that much, but just in case the guild also has some really strong mages that specialize in battle."

Five sense mages, that sounds kind of like the element four from Phantom Lord. I wonder what else this guild has to offer. But there's one question more important than that.

"Can I have some food?"

Sorry for the short chapters... But here's the update!

If you have an OC you know what to do.

PLEASE REVIEW/ PM! Seriously, just let out your inner english teacher and tell me what i can do to improve. I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you for reading until this point.

~Stellar MEL