Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Desert's Treasure, Part 2
Sting and Lector went quite far into the Haina Desert, currently standing in an area of the desert that had large rocks forming a circle, and the two males looked around while being somewhat unsure of their location. Sting went into the desert with Lector while simply going north, not even caring about the fact that he could probably find the bandits by going east or west, and he took a deep sniff of the sandy air in an attempt to track down Kira's scent. He thought that she would be in serious danger, despite the fact that she lied to him about that, and the light dragon slayer groaned a bit.
He opened up the orange guidebook that was in his left hand, turning to the pages that displayed the map of the Haina Desert, and seeing a picture of rocks in a circle let Sting know that he was in the southern part of the Haina Desert. The other parts of the desert were in a darker shade of orange, making Sting look a bit puzzled, and he decided to just keep heading north. It would be pretty good to just find Kira with this easy strategy, even though Sting and Lector would probably have their path end at a large rock wall, but it wouldn't be simple to find someone in a vast desert.
Lector flew down to the ground for a moment, only to scream in pain from how his feet didn't like the feeling of the hot sand, and he wasted no time with flying on to Sting's right shoulder. The sand blew around them while the sun sent down its rays of heat, really giving Haina Desert an atmosphere that was quite rough, and Sting started to walk north while he felt somewhat confident about Kira's location. If she wasn't directly north, then wouldn't she still run into him at some point? She could be running through the desert from its eastern half, and the mages would surely meet up.
As the blue-eyed male took a few more steps north, kicking a small rock quite far with his left foot, Sting took a few steps back when he saw the rock land on the golden sand. He was not surprised at how the rock was motionless on the ground, but it was very startling to see the rock begin sinking into some sand that appeared to be slightly darker. There appeared to be dark whirlpools of sand up ahead, spinning in a clockwise manner while they'd clearly suck up anything that they touched, and the fact that this desert had quicksand caused Sting to be alert.
He narrowed his blue eyes while deciding to turn west, as Kira once told him that selling goods in the western part of the Haina Desert had made her profits be at a high level, but Sting and Lector were soon caught off guard by the sight of a sand twister suddenly appearing in front of them! Sting groaned in slight annoyance from guessing that the bandits found him, smelling a stranger's scent in the air, and witnessing the brown-haired man in the orange cloak emerge from the sandstorm had been enough to inform Sting that he was being watched.
"All right, bandit. What have you done with Kira? Are you gonna tell me, or do I have to beat you up?" Sting asked in a stern manner while he put the guidebook in the left pocket of his blue vest, before charging up white light that would surround his hands.
The brown-haired man replied with a confused facial expression, "What are you talking about? I'm here to rob you, and I'll drag you back to my guild to get myself a nice promotion. Give me your money, or I'll do this the hard way."
Sting answered that order by firing his White Dragon's Roar at the bandit, sending him sliding back, and the blond-haired male made more white light surround his left fist. He didn't waste any time with lunging towards the robber, giving him quite a fierce punch to the face, and the criminal was sent rolling backwards while Sting began to confidently grin at him. He watched the man in cloak start to stand up, before seeing him stretch out his left hand, and Sting soon leaped back from the sight of sand swirling around for a moment to form an extremely large hand.
The sand hand slammed itself down on the ground, possibly attempting to crush Sting with its pressure, but Sting was right in front of the sand hand's middle finger. He used his Holy Nova attack on it, concentrating his magical power into his right fist, and a sphere of light surrounded Sting's fist while he slammed it down on the sandy creation. The sand hand's middle finger started to break apart, followed by Sting using his White Dragon's Roar on the large hand to greatly destroy it, and seeing it shatter into clumps of sand had made Sting smile more.
His happiness would only last for a moment, however, and Sting's foe soon placed his left hand down on the ground to trigger a powerful spell. He sent his magical power into the ground while evilly grinning at Sting, planning to send him down into some quicksand for a while, and he made some dark orange sand surround Sting's feet. This sand was quite dense, making Sting be unable to move, and the criminal made more of the dark sand rise up from the ground to cover Sting's body. The light dragon slayer was soon sucked down into a whirlpool of quicksand, taking Lector down with him, and the criminal had won.
He began to cheer while dancing around happily, thinking about how he'd just jump into the hole to follow Sting for the sake of capturing him, but this eager criminal wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. His quicksand hole was hasty with closing up and disappearing, leaving him with no way of following Sting, and he certainly didn't plan on sending himself down into the sands. They led down to a dimly lit maze that was said to contain treasure, but none of the criminals in Haina Desert would ever go down there because of how the quicksand whirlpools could appear in different places while they could troll people by making them fall into the same area repeatedly.
The brown-haired robber noticed that one of his comrades in a dark green cloak came along, hiding his face while only showing his messy black hair, and the criminal who fought Sting began to look nervous as he would have to explain himself. The smart bandits in the desert's dark guild liked to rob people and tie them up for the sake of holding them hostage, preventing them from escaping, but there seemed to be a clear reason why the man with messy brown hair couldn't get a promotion. In fact, he probably just made Sting have a chance at getting away.
"Sunahama, where's that dragon slayer you told me and the others about? Were you able to beat him, or did you just send him flying?" The black-haired man asked his comrade while smirking in a teasing manner, knowing that the guy with messy brown hair could be an arrogant klutz sometime.
Looking really frustrated, the robber replied while starting to avert his eyes from his friend's grin of possible satisfaction, "I think that I sent him down into the Haina Desert's stone ruins, sir."
That only caused the man in the green cloak to angrily close his eyes as he slapped his left palm against his face, regretting that he even taught the stupid robber how to use the spell known as Quicksand's Loot Hole, and that spell only needed to be used in the areas where treasure could be unearthed. It was never meant to be used as a spell for killing, since the Haina Desert was actually full of holes that were dug using Earth Magic, and hearing that Sting went down into sands made the criminal think that he'd get his hands on the treasure.
30 minutes later, in the Haina Desert...
After getting off the train at the station in Nichibotsu Town, Lucy had asked one of the merchants about where she could find a tiny cave in the Haina Desert. The merchant kindly informed Lucy that the small cave was located in the eastern part of the desert, sharing Kira's fact about how the cave was in a rather isolated part of the desert, and there was actually a secret route that could help Lucy get into that cave. There were no specific details on where to find the route, however, and Lucy would simply have to find it on her own.
The Celestial Spirit Wizard was currently walking around the eastern side of the Haina Desert, looking for that small cave, and she stood near some jagged rocks that oddly formed the four corners of a square. There was something pretty suspicious about this place, especially since it was right next to a rock wall that had a tunnel for trains to travel through, and Lucy began to wonder about something. If treasure really was in this desert, then why would someone hide it so close to a place where trains passed through? After all, someone could easily dig up the treasure and hurry over to the train before it reached the tunnel.
Lucy looked around while she thought about how it would be nearly impossible to find a tiny cave, as there weren't any long walls that had any strange cracks in them, but her cocoa brown eyes soon noticed something. Kira never mentioned the jagged rocks that were in this part of the desert, possibly forgetting that detail, but the rock that formed the upper-left corner of the square seemed to weirdly have a crack at its base. This wasn't exactly a normal thing, so what was going on? Lucy thought about checking it out, but then she looked at the other jagged rocks to see if they also had cracks.
Lucy's facial expression became confident while she opened up the red spell book, ready to use the fifth spell, and it was known as Fiery Lava. This spell prompted Lucy to shoot out some red goop from her mouth, watching the red lava hit the upper-left rock while it bubbled at a boiling temperature, and the lava soon created a fiery explosion that was quite large! It sent Lucy sliding backwards while she could feel the intense waves of heat, liking how this volcanic spell was quite fiery, and the powerful spell caused the rock to break apart.
The hot sand around it began to break as well, almost like it was fake, and Lucy remembered how Gray once informed her that some mages could create fake rocks or fake terrain to hide things. Lucy took a few steps forward while realizing that the sand was hot, which was normal, but the sand in this part of the Haina Desert didn't feel very dense. She thought about the client's flyer spoke of a small cave, watching the sand around the broken rock start to fall apart, and the remaining sand had been surrounding a cave that had an entrance big enough for a person to only put their hand into it.
"I get it now. Someone probably used Earth Magic to create these rocks as a distraction, and they wanted to conceal the cave." Lucy thought to herself as she looked somewhat happy, ready to find the treasure.
Lucy said aloud to herself in a calm manner, walking towards the small cave, "All right. This is it."
She soon approached the cave, before kneeling down in front of it, and Lucy stretched out her right arm in an attempt to get her hand into the small hole. She got slightly closer while feeling her fingers manage to get in the hole, only feeling the solid ground of the cave, and Lucy would not get up. She moved her fingers an inch forward, really hoping that this treasure would be worth getting, and Lucy gasped a bit when she could feel something that was similar to moving sand. She didn't mind that, however, and Lucy put her five fingers into it.
That was actually quicksand with a great amount of force, sucking Lucy's hand into it, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard used the spell known as Fire Trick to destroy the small cave. Her right hand shot out a ball of fire at the quicksand, creating another fiery explosion, and the explosive fireball was powerful enough to decimate the cave into the rubble. As Lucy moved some of the rocks out of the way with her left hand, she soon screamed in horror from how her right hand was harshly getting sucked into the quicksand. It made half of her arm enter the whirlpool of sand as well, before dragging Lucy into it, and her size didn't really matter.
Lucy thought about summoning Scorpio, as he would use Sand Magic to help her get free, but she had another thought that oddly told her to just get into the quicksand. It would be pretty unorthodox for the treasure to be in the quicksand, but what if the quicksand pit led to the treasure? Lucy narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while her left hand tightly gripped the red spell book, not wanting to let go of it, and she soon closed her eyes while letting the quicksand suck her in. It would possibly take her down to the treasure, but what if it led to her death?
She felt herself get swallowed by the sand, traveling down through the dark brown sand, and Lucy didn't mind the heat at all. She thought that her own flames would be much hotter, possibly capable of burning through the Haina Desert, and Lucy wondered if she'd ever see the light of day again. This was quite an unusual treasure mission, since the treasure wasn't exactly in a sandy cave or on the desert sand, and Lucy really felt like this adventure was going to be just as crazy as her previous one. In fact, something crazy would probably happen soon.
Lucy began to slide downward at a faster rate, almost like the quicksand's path was going to end soon, and she started to let out a fearful scream as she thought that deadly spikes would be at the end of the fall. Lucy couldn't even pull out one of her Celestial Spirit Keys, since she was too afraid of what was going to happen, and looking up to not see any sign of daylight was quite bad. The dark sand around her made this path be quite dim, not having any source of light around, and Lucy soon fell down into a dark hole that was circular. She closed her eyes while thinking that a beast was at the bottom of the hole, but Lucy wouldn't exactly encounter a vicious beast.
Concurrently, in the stone ruins...
Sting and Lector had been sent down to the stone ruins of the Haina Desert, walking on a black stone path that was bordered by black stone walls that had been made long ago, and the two males took notice of how the torches on the walls were dimly lit. The fact that fire was burning dimly in this place meant that someone must've been here, possibly looking for something that was very important, and no one else probably came down here. When Sting and Lector first dropped down through the quicksand, they noticed a wall behind them while Sting could hear footsteps on the other side of the wall. They also brushed most of the sand off of their bodies, and coughed from the clouds of dust that soon formed.
These ruins had paths that were closed off from each other, possibly meant to trap people or keep them away from their allies, and different quicksand holes actually led to different parts of the ruins. Sting and his red Exceed had been walking straight ahead for about 30 minutes now, watching the quicksand from above drop sand down to the floor in thin amounts, and it seemed like this path would go on forever. They were actually on the sacred path, a very long path that was made in olden times for the king to reach his throne, but the throne at the end of the path would no longer exist.
The light dragon slayer looked somewhat annoyed at the fact that Kira wasn't found, wondering if he'd have to find some way into another part of the ruins for the sake of finding his red-haired companion, and he honestly felt like this mission was pretty insane. Kira didn't appear to even be in the vast desert, as only her scent was remaining, and Sting's enhanced hearing didn't help him hear the sound of Kira's voice. It was like she wasn't even here, which was so puzzling to Sting, and he scoffed at the thought of encountering a tough monster soon.
He was in the mood to take out a monster, especially after how a stupid thief had the nerve to ruin his day by sending him down here, and Sting began to run fast as his blue eyes took notice of the path looking like it would have a right turn. He wanted to see if there was anything at the end of this path, even if would be a gigantic monster with large teeth, and the faint sound of something had caught his ears. Lector noticed the sound as well, causing him to quickly run alongside Sting, and the duo was quite eager to see what they would end up finding.
Sting kept running towards the straight route that ended at a rock wall, before making the right turn to see that the path was short while it led to an orange treasure chest, and the blue-eyed dragon slayer began to grin at how fate would reward him like this. He was about to take a few steps forward, really wanting to see what was inside the chest, but the sound of a girl's scream from above started to make him cover his ears. This certain wizard was screaming quite loud while her voice seemed familiar to Sting, and he looked straight up to see that he was standing below a dark hole. As Sting was about to try catching this girl, though, she was quick to fall on him.
"Huh? I'm not dead? What is this place?" Lucy curiously asked herself while opening her cocoa brown eyes to see that she was in an underground area, before noticing the treasure that was part of her mission.
Lector exclaimed in a concerned manner, looking very surprised by this, "Who are you? Did you know that you just landed on Fiore's best dragon slayer?"
Lucy looked down for a moment as she felt that her fall was broken by something, seeming somewhat happy, "Sting, you're here? We meet again!"
Sting asked her with a calm look on his face, still down on the ground, "Even though seeing you is the best amount of joy I've felt today, can you get off of me?"
Lucy blushed a bit while getting off of Sting, watching the light dragon slayer start to stand up as he was brushing himself off, and he made Lucy blush more by giving her a comforting hug. This had been one of the toughest jobs that he and Lector had to face, as they had to deal with the desert's heat while also dealing with the dangers of quicksand, and having another friend around would make the task of finding Kira seem less annoying. That made Sting widen his blue eyes while he thought about asking Lucy if she saw Kira, but her honest answer would probably make him scream in anger.
The Celestial Spirit Wizard calmly let Sting know that Kira came to her apartment in Magnolia for the purpose of collecting the 60,000 jewels that Lucy owed her for the spell book, and she had said something about wanting to eat at a cafe. Lucy smiled happily while asking the blue-eyed male about what he had been doing in the Haina Desert, before looking somewhat surprised at how Sting seemed like he was clenching his fists in anger, and Lucy chose to back away as her friend seemed like he was about to start screaming.
Sting did indeed scream, starting to rant about how Kira was just messing with him, and the confident guy didn't even mind that he was loud enough to alert some dark mages about his presence while they were behind the nearby wall. He felt like wanting to hit Kira right now, seriously disliking how she wasted his time with a total lie about how she was kidnapped, and Sting shot his White Dragon's Roar up at the quicksand ceiling with lots of power to create a gaping hole. He wanted to just fly out of here with Lector, wanting to scold Kira, but Sting soon shifted his attention to Lucy.
She pulled out the brown flyer from the left pocket of her green dress to show its job description to Sting, informing him that she was down here for the treasure, and the client would simply want to know if it was real. The small cave actually was a method of concealing the quicksand whirlpool that deviously sucked in someone who could make their arm reach it, and it would always bring people down to this part of the ruins. The dark mages who sought the treasure had not thought about the fact that the small cave was concealed by the last person who found it, so Lucy and her friends would be some of the few people who managed to find this place.
As Lucy took some steps towards the orange treasure chest that sat on top of a small staircase, she was soon feeling the ground begin to shake while Sting and Lector could feel it as well. What in the world was going on? Lucy soon saw the wall behind the treasure chest begin to have slight cracks, almost like someone had bulldozed or dug through the dense black rock wall to reach this ancient room, and that immediately caused Lucy to pull out one of her Celestial Spirit Keys. She opened the Gate of The Scorpion, summoning Scorpio, and the spirit who had a tail cannon appeared next to her.
Lucy and Scorpio looked quite curious about who could be barging into this room, seeing that it was a certain man who had messy brown hair while he wore an orange cloak with brown pants to match, but Sting wasted no time with running towards this guy. He wanted to make him pay for sending him down into these ruins, caring less about the treasure, but the brown-haired man grinned while he made the brown drill of earth on his left hand become longer for it to be like a sword that would stab Sting. Lucy didn't want to see her ally get stabbed, and she commanded Scorpio to use the attack known as Sand Buster.
Scorpio pointed his scorpion-like stinger at the robber, and a large amount of sand was fired at the opponent in the form of a large tornado! The criminal was struck by the attack while the black rock wall broke apart, not wanting to scream in pain from the attack, and Lucy watched the robber's rock drill begin to spin at high speeds. It began to take in the sand that was fired from Scorpio's tail, absorbing it to make the drill's power grow while it would become more dense, and Sting could see that this guy was not a complete idiot.
The criminal known as Sunahama begin to arrogantly grin while he picked up some rocks with his left hand, infusing his Earth Magic into them, and he simply threw the rocks at Scorpio! The Celestial Spirit with red and white hair began to scream in pain from how the rocks created orange explosions when they struck him, and Sunahama used his fast moving drill as a way to fire off the rocks at high speeds. More speed helped them gain more power, and Scorpio didn't like how one of the rocks brutally hit him in the chest. Lucy chose to send him back to the Celestial Spirit World, not wanting to see him get hurt anymore, but what would she do?
Lucy opened up the red spell book to see if there would be any spells worth using, hoping that at least one of them would be able to help her in this situation, and she turned some pages to find a spell known as Fiery Whip. Lucy called upon the spell, watching it soon create a whip of fire in her left hand, and Sting wondered if Lucy would try to burn the robber. She surprisingly made her whip of flames wrap around the drill, watching the fire soon get brushed away by the high speed of the drill's rotation, but something interesting began to happen.
A small flame managed to stay on the drill, simply giving it a slight burn, but that red flame soon grew large enough to cover the entire drill! This spell was actually useful for taking away an enemy's defenses, as the fire actually burned through the shell of the drill, and the robber's left hand quickly caught on fire. The flames that were brushed aside had returned to the glorious fire that was on the criminal's hand, attracted to the heat, and the flame soon stretched out like a whip to cover Sunahama in flames. He screamed in agony while getting down on his knees, not knowing what to do, and going down a quicksand hole to get close to the treasure room had been quite a hot mistake. By the way, this unorthodox spell of Fire Magic was known as Heated Whip.
Sting told him in a stern tone, not feeling any sympathy, "Well, that's your karma for trying to attack me in the Haina Desert and sending me down into quicksand."
Lector added while smiling proudly, pretty glad that Lucy used that spell, "That's what you get for messing with us!"
15 minutes later, in the desert...
After Lector flew out of the hole with Sting and Lucy, the red Exceed was nicely introduced to the Celestial Spirit Wizard by Sting. He kindly informed Lector that Lucy was a Fairy Tail mage who didn't like her guild at all, since Natsu Dragneel rejected her, and using Fire Magic seemed to be Lucy's new specialty. She didn't seem to really shine in this fight, due to the robber being a really pathetic enemy, but Lucy did not come to the desert for a fight. She came to Haina Desert for the treasure, having taken the orange treasure chest out of the ruins, but what was in the small chest?
Lucy was about to open it up, really wanting to look inside, but a sudden breeze flipped a few pages in her red book to let her see a page that had a picture of the Fire Crystal on it. This part of the book explained to the blonde-haired mage that she could use a more powerful attack from any of her fire spells, changing them while she'd have to be holding the Fire Crystal as well, and Lucy took out that red item from the left pocket of her green dress. She calmly handed the book to Sting after seeing that a certain stance had to be made, but what was Lucy going to do?
She stretched out her right hand in a calm manner while pretending to breathe out fire, holding that pose for about seven seconds, and a large red vortex of fire soon emerged from Lucy's right hand. It headed for a rock that was far away, moving at high speeds, and the sight of a fiery explosion had made Lucy and Sting drop their jaws in amazement. The Fire Crystal enhanced the power of the spell known as Fire Ball, as Lucy was thinking about that particular spell during the moment she unleashed the move known as Fiery Flame Vortex, and that high-powered move simply activated before her weakest spell.
This was known as F-Power, since it came from the Fire Crystal, and the crystal's power could only be used once per day. After its usage, Lucy would just have to use the book's spells of Fire Magic. She looked down at her hands to see that they were engulfed in a red aura while they felt somewhat hot, and Lucy felt like she got slightly stronger. That was amazing for her, but she did feel kinda bad about defeating Sting's enemy for him. He seemed like he wanted to even the score with that guy, since they fought previously, and Lucy denied him that chance.
The girl with cocoa brown eyes felt like the light dragon slayer would be mad at her for taking down an enemy who he had a conflict with, making her look at him in a somewhat regretful manner, but Lucy was surprised to see Sting look at her in a pleasant way. He actually wanted to thank her for bringing some relief to his morning, especially liking how she comically fell on him, and Sting liked Lucy's way of dropping in on a matter that didn't even concern her in the first place. As Lucy began to look out at the remnants of the fiery explosion, Sting began to realize something.
Kira lied to him while she had been in Magnolia, possibly running into Lucy while she had to do a job in the Haina Desert. That quirky red-haired merchant wanted Sting to be in the Haina Desert as well, almost like Kira was hoping that Lucy would meet up with Sting, and she probably saw them as a good pairing. Sting blushed a little bit at that thought, thinking that Lucy was kinda cute, and she probably defeated his enemy as her way of returning the favor for how he saved her in Kasai Town. Sting actually liked that, but at least he could leave the desert soon.
"Well, Kira probably fooled me as a way to make us meet in the desert. Maybe we can officially meet up somewhere at some point, Lucy. I like being around you." Sting told her in a calm tone, wanting to thank her for making this morning be better.
Lucy asked him nicely as she smiled a bit, thinking of a good place, "There's a new cafe in Magnolia. We could meet there, Sting. It'll be like a friendly date."
As Lucy decided to gently pick up the small treasure chest with her right hand while walking over to Sting for the purpose of getting the spell book from him, both of the mages felt their hearts softly beat about the fact that they'd soon be going to a cafe together. Lucy's left hand swiftly obtained the spell book from Sting, before she turned around, and Lucy started to blush a light shade of pink as she thought about how Sting had the most confident grin that she had ever seen. At the same time, Sting found himself starting to think about Lucy's cheerful smile. The desert may have been rather dull, but the chemistry between these two mages could be strong like Earth Magic.
How was Chapter 6? Feel free to give me feedback on it.