Fairy Tail is not mine; all I own is this plot :)
Enjoy~
October 15, X821 [2:25pm]
It'd been a few days since the new recruits had accepted their defeat, and the guild were now spread out among the castle. And with the best view overlooking the city of Stone Cress, Milo Vincent sat on the castle rooftop, idly playing with the laces of his left shoe. His right foot seemed to tap against the stone floor in a rhythmic beat, the sound dulled from the rubber on the bottom of his prosthetic leg.
The 19 year old teen had joined just under a year ago, and his guild mark was placed on his left shoulder blade in a sky blue, though left unseen due to his clothes. The boy wore a simple white t-shirt with an unbuttoned sky blue plaid shirt over the top; the shirt billowing out behind him in the light breeze. He also had light brown cargo shorts with two pockets down each side, along with a solid red handkerchief tied around his face; covering his nose and mouth. His complexion was of a light, natural tan and his eyes a bright yellow, fading toward a dark blue toward his pupil with small flecks of green in between. His hair was slightly spiky yet fluffy at the same time, but the messy locks reached his shoulders in a tumble of light orange and tinted brown. He had broad shoulders and a lean build, adding to his figure of an athletic man.
He let out a soft sigh and sharply turned at the sound of the thud behind him. "Ah, Cassia… it's just you." He breathed before turning back to face the view before him, eying the crowds of people wandering around town below.
The girl's eyes narrowed at the sight of him sitting there. She wasn't expecting someone else to be on the rooftop after all, much less someone from Jupiter's Reign. "Tch." She voiced, a tone of annoyance threaded its way into her words, "Why're you up here? Not that I really care…"
"Hmm, what's wrong with me coming up here for some fresh air?" Milo rolled his eyes a little, patting the spot beside him, internally accepting the fact that Cassia had probably found this place first, and he was now invading it. He heard her huff, before walking over and settling down beside him nonetheless.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, staring out into the distance where they could see past Stone Cress and into the next city over; Allium. Mainly because the Cathedral stood tall, at two-thirds of the height that the castle was. There was no real road or train line between the neighbouring towns, just a wide boardwalk through a cluster of trees. Because of this, the area was often left unguarded, only to be checked upon when whomever was on duty that day made their rounds, which was about once every hour.
"Just so you know, I'm not here because I want to stay or anything. Y-You should be glad I'm even talking to you." The young woman crossed her arms and scrunched her nose. Cassia had wine-red hair that was styled into high twin-tails, curling at the ends where it reached her waist. Her bang were swept to the left, and strands were left hanging loosely to frame her face. With a short stature of 5'5, she had a surprisingly generous chest along with a lean figure. Her skin held a peachy complexion, highlighting the sharp, golden eyes she had. Her outfit consisted of brown plaid shorts, dark brown riding boots, and a long-sleeved black turtleneck that covered her wine-red guild mark placed in between her shoulder blades.
"Ah yes, I'm very grateful." Milo pretended to nod solemnly and stood up, brushing off invisible dust from his backside. He hopped from one foot to another for a few moments, testing the stability of his prosthetic leg. He pointed to the opposite side of the castle, where the scenery was a simple mountain range with few trees and plenty of jagged edges. "How 'bout a race? Just to pass some time before Nagato or Ryuga come to get us for the meeting with the King and the Officials. To the top of the first mountain and back; it shouldn't take longer than maybe 20 minutes."
Cassia rose and scoffed as though his idea was daft. "Hmph, don't blame me if you end up tripping over and bleeding out. I would rather deal with the foreboding sight of grey clouds than your squealing fire."
"Flamenco! I'm hurt." Milo placed a hand over his heart in a sardonic manner. He paused for a moment, on the verge of laughter, but gave up in the end, wiping a tear from his eye as he chuckled breathlessly. He knew he wasn't the only one, but many found Cassia's character quite humorous in the way she constantly expressed herself. There were times where she may go a bit too far, but otherwise the guild found it to be comical.
The girl raised her eyebrows at the mention of her last name, but said nothing else as a set of fiery -wings flared from her shoulder blades; its flames dancing around one another as she gave them a few experimental flaps. With a sharp glare, she began to lift herself, and skim across the ground to the edge of the rooftop. "To the top of the first mountain was it? You have to bring a Mok berry back too, as proof."
"Deal."
.
A string of notes resounded throughout the room as a soft melody was played. A piano accompaniment soon joined in as Niles' fingers flew over the keys. Tristan's head bopped along to the beat as he strummed the guitar he held in his hands. The two stopped after a few moments, grinning as Tristan stood up and walked over to the piano. "That was nice." He spoke, "But maybe you could place a rest between the C minor and the G here."
"Ah the G major? Yeah I think that'll work, I'll do the same for Milo and Iris' parts." Niles picked up a pencil and scribbled in the new symbol. He paused for a moment before scrawling in a few more notes at the end of the page. "And how about that for the next four beats?"
"Seems good, but we could probably go through and repeat that twice before switching into an F sharp before playing the final chords." The older male added in, pointing to a few spots on the music paper. "After that we could probably call Lucretzia and Saria in to write a few lyrics if they want to."
The pianist gave a confirmative nod, "Of course, the King asked me if we could perform it at their next dinner party."
"Hmmm," the black haired boy smiled, rather sheepishly, "make me feel like we're taking the musicians' jobs don't you think?"
"Ah well, the Master has his orders." Niles shrugged, "Shall we run through it once more?"
Tristan nodded and went to sit back down when the door burst open and a young girl tumbled in. One look at the panic-stricken girl was enough to set both boys off. "Iris! What's wrong?" He jumped up to place a comforting hand on his teammate. He looked up at Niles for a moment, who seemed to immediately understand and backed off, muttering something about finding Raven to help calm Iris down.
The 18 year old was currently clutching at the silver cross draped around her neck, her large, blue-green doe eyes squeezed closed. Her pale pink, long wavy hair was unkempt, and her natural pale skin was even paler in comparison, the smatter of freckles she had disappearing as she scrunched her nose. At 5'6 in height, she currently wore a sleeveless red dress with black ankle boots and a white jacket over the top; the jacket's sleeves only reaching up to her elbows. Under what she wore, Iris also had henna tattoos covering her body, the main one that could be seen were the stars that curled its way up and around her ankle. On her collarbone was the guild's signature king's chess piece in a light blue, and her pierce ears currently hand long, dangling earrings in them.
"Hey, tell me what's wrong." Raven called out to the girl, breathing heavily as she'd rushed over as soon as Niles had explained the situation. Her arms reached around the younger girl to pull her into a hug.
Iris gulped, "I-I don't really know… but there was a spider in the library and when I tried to shoo it away, its babies jumped from its back and started crawling toward me!" she shuddered at the thought of being attacked by such vile creatures.
"I-It's okay." Raven placed a hand upon her racing heart, calming down when she realized the situation wasn't anything too out of hand, "I'll go and ask one of the maids to clean the library then, if you feel safer that way."
The pinkette quietly voiced an agreement, and the girl left the room as quickly as she came, glancing once at Tristan in the form of unspoken words. The twenty-five year old nodded once before leading Iris out of the room and downstairs to the guildhall. Pushing the door open, he guided her in and sat her down in the closest chair, petting her head lightly. They sat there for a few moments in the silence as everyone else in the room continued to do their own thing.
"…Oh, is now a bad time?" The two mages looked up to see Lucretzia standing there with a small package in her hands. Her expression morphed into one of worry as she saw Iris' hands still shaking slightly from shock. With a small smile, she gave a tiny bow to excuse herself and made to turn away when she was suddenly called back.
"No, now's fine. I'm perfectly fine now." Iris stopped her from leaving, a bubbly grin now gracing her features. "I'm not too sure why, but the spirits seem to be telling me that you've got something important for us? Though they're not too sure of whether it's good or bad news." she frowned in puzzlement, but pulled a smiled back up onto her lips as she held out her hand. "Am I right to assume that the package is for Tristan or I?"
"Almost correct, it's for both of you actually." Lucretzia carefully place the box into the girl's hands. "I bumped into Charlie a little earlier, and she seemed a little flustered so I offered to deliver this to you for her."
"Ah, thank you… that reminds me. Niles and I just finished the composition for the song we're performing. If you're free right now, maybe you could head up to the music room and write some lyrics?" The boy suggested, seeing that the latter seemed to be floating around from place to place, looking a little bit bored.
Lavender eyes widened with a glimmer of excitement as she was quick to take him up on his offer. "Sounds like quite the plan. Hopefully it'll keep me busy until dinner; honestly, the jobs haven't been of a high standard and most others don't have the time to spar with me lately. But I'm curious as to see what you've all come up with now! Maybe I'll go fetch Saria too while I'm at it… I'm fairly sure I last saw her in the garden with Pyocious."
The two waved as she left, the door clicking back into place soon after. They turned their attention back to the boxed parcel that Iris had placed on the table. It was rather small, but the addressees were definitely to a 'Sir Marx and Miss Grace of Stone Cress'. Tristan frowned before picking it up and shaking it lightly for sound; there definitely wouldn't be anything harmful like an explosive in there, or one of them would have sniffed it out already. The addressees were also quite specific, unless they were the only targets or something. But that would be near impossible since they barely gave their names out to the general public – that and no one really knew they existed. So that really left them with one option; their last teammate.
They swiftly tore into the wrapping, opening one end of the box to let the contents fall out. A single, black die with white dots tumbled onto the table, along with a small slip of paper. "This is… unusual of her. Why would she send us part of her lucky item? She's always keeps them on her. There's no magic embedded into the paper either." Iris commented, picking up the paper. Reading through the tiny script, her eyes reflected delight as she released a heavy sigh that she'd been holding for the past few days.
'Soon… and that's a promise.'
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A man clicked his tongue in annoyance as he voiced a complaint for the nth time that day. "Ugh, so why do I have to be stuck here with you guys again?"
"Because we simply cannot have you out in the public with your Casanova ways, with the possibility of ruining the Kingdom's reputation if your proper identity were to be discovered." The reply came instantly without hesitation. Three men from the guild were currently in a large room, watching over some of the new trainees as they ran laps around the room in full armour and extra weights. Quite boring actually, but Gerald was currently with the East Admiral.
"Hmm, whatever." The man stood up and began to walk out with a huff.
Nagato frowned and spoke to the older man in a warning tone before he managed to open the door, "Gareth…"
The said man turned around irritably, "What? You have no control over me." His round, amber eyes flashed with anger. Spikey silver hair seemed to bristle in agreement to his current emotion as his pale skin flushed red. His white, long-sleeved shirt did nothing to hide his guild mark placed on the right side of his neck. He also wore a pair of blue pants and leather boots were worn of his feet. Though he stood slightly shorter than the man currently berating him – at 5'10, he made up for it with his muscular build. In his hand, he tossed a silver gemstone up and down tauntingly.
"But you're not King. The cockier you get, the less likely you are to survive this war." Nagato allowed no further argument in his cold tone, keeping a level head as he pointed for Gareth to sit back down against the wall. Glancing up again, he called out to the third mage who was joining in on the laps that the recruits were running. "Jake, how're you holding up?"
"Good, good." He called back, "No one's managed to pass me yet, but I believe that we should be stopping sometime soon. Come on boys! I think this is the third time I've overlapped you without using my magic. How do you expect to win a fight – let alone a war with ample stamina and speed?"
At 5'7, the slightly muscular 18 year old was simply running circles around the group members, his messy green hair tangling with the wind. His sharp brown eyes held a look of encouragement and his white complexion didn't even show the beginnings of sweat or redness from the amount of exercise he was doing. Dressed in a greed jacket layered over a blue shirt, he stood out from the rest of the armour-clad crowd. A golden pocket watch thumped against his leg, swinging from the belt loop of his brown shorts. His brown shoes also seemed to have no sign of wearing out anytime soon despite his love for running around everywhere.
Looking around at the exhausted faces, the young boy slowly came to a stop and dropped the weights in his hands, the others following suit. Walking over to a side wall, he reached into the small compartment places there before pulling out a pitcher of water and cups. "Now, when regaining breath, don't hunch over… you need to expose your lungs more place your hands behind your head, breath slowly, and take a cool down lap." Jake explained, handing out the water along the way. "We begin again in ten minutes."
Following his instructions, they all looked at one another wearily, obviously not used to such training methods. "And we still have sword skills for another hour." One grumbled, avoiding Nagato's eyes as he walked past. No doubt that he'd be even harsher than Jake.
The minutes passed by quickly as they were lead into a series of stretches before they were sent back to their usual line-up formation. Nagato began weaving his way in and out of each line, drawing out their standard swords from their sheaths and throwing them into the back wall. Each embedded into the wood with a small thud, making the men stand up straighter. Gareth laughed, having calmed down. "You'll get those back later." He teased.
"But… aren't you trying to improve our sword skills?" they objected, feeling uncomfortable that their weapon of attack had been taken from them. A few placed a hand over their empty sheath, as is trying to recover the loss of their pride. After all, each of their swords had apparently been smithed to their needs and specialties just yesterday, and now it was like they were being stripped from their knighthood.
"Yes, but today we shall train with metal poles. Of course, they're also filled with lead." Jake walked over, carrying three of the poles in each hand before throwing one each at the knights in the first row. Catching them – or attempting to – most of them breathed out a heavy grunt from the unfamiliar, denser weigh than that of a sword. They were, however, the same length as a normal blade. Disappearing into the storage room, the youngest mage in the room once again returned with more metal poles. "Anyway, there's no need to get agitated… the other current trainees will also receive this same training session. As did the other groups before you, and as will the groups arriving after you."
"May I ask what the other groups are currently doing?"
"Today they're most likely going through basic defence, basic first aid, swimming, meditation and basic survival needs." Gareth listed from his fingers as Nagato and Jake sent him curious stares. He adopted an innocent expression and shrugged, "What? This isn't the first time I've had to be cooped up during the first rounds of training sessions. Most of the guild has had to 'monitor' me at some point… Wednesday was kinda depressing though. She kept going on about how everyone in the room was going to die anyway, so her training session couldn't really be called training."
The room fell quiet, as if even mentioning the pessimistic girl's name called for a moment of depressing silence. As the rookies shuffled around, Nagato took lead once again, making his way back up to the front of the room. He took one of the temporary weapons for himself, passing one on to Gareth who grunted, but snatched it anyway. He stood up and went to stand beside Nagato, as did Jake.
"Let's begin." Nagato murmured, just loud enough for everyone to hear. He quickly ducked as Gareth swung him. Jake took this opportunity to advance on him as he rolled forward, attempting to knock Jake's pole out of the way with his own. As the young boy began to push back, Nagato took the force and used it to get the green haired boy to run into Gareth, lightly using his pole to tap Jake on the back.
Before they collided, Gareth moved out of the way and made to charge at his opponent. Meeting him halfway, they clashed 'swords' and began in a flurry of attacks. They fought for the next two minutes before both stepping back to bow. "Thank you."
"No problem." Gareth shrugged before heading back to his spot against the wall. He dropped the pole, causing a small dust cloud to rise up from the ground. "But if we were using real swords, you'd be dead by now… just so you know."
"I believe we would've had an equal chance." Nagato commented loosely. Turning back to the others, he pointed to them with his weapon. "Tell me, could you see our weapons as Gareth and I were fighting?"
"Erm, not really. It was all just a blur." One spoke. "But I did pick up that the kid 'died' when you tapped him on the back."
"Correct." He nodded, "If we were using real swords, that is. So with that in mind, imagine if Gareth and I really were using real weapons? At what pace would our swords be moving?"
"Really fast…?" a soldier in the front row answered.
Gareth snorted and rolled his eyes. "That was a rhetorical question. Idiot."
Nagato chose to ignore the man and continued on with what he was saying. "The point it, this lead pole is supposed to make your sword feel lighter and easier to wield at the end of the final session using these. You will do five-hundred swings on each arm before we end today's session. Just because you are dominant in one hand, it doesn't mean you should slack off on training with the other one."
"That makes sense, no wonder why my sword was heavier than I'd asked for."
"Well, now you know." Gareth spoke dryly.
Jake gave the older man a pitiful glance. "Gareth, your commentary is really unnecessary…"
.
The guards outside gave a salute as they opened the double doors for Raven. She seemed to be the first person to walk into the meeting that afternoon. Her ponytail bobbed up and down as she made her way over to the refectory table; the design had been styled to have the table sit just about 10 inches above the ground. Taking off her shoes, she politely settled onto one of the cushions placed around the table, tucking her legs beneath her in a respectful manner.
"Hello Raven. How've you been?"
"Ah, hello. I've been good." She nodded absentmindedly.
There was a light chuckle from the seat across hers. "That's great! It's been a while, have I missed anything important in the past few weeks?"
"Hmm, not really. There is a Vitality Check soon though, and a boy named Teddy joined as well." Raven frowned slightly, feeling as though something was amiss. She wasn't hearing voices, was she? Blinking a few times, she rubbed at her eyes to find a familiar woman smiling at her. Her brown orbs widened in disbelief as she took in the woman before her. "Maeve. You're back?"
Maeve Ross sat there, wearing her usual outfit of a collared light blue blouse, tucked into an ankle length black skirt with slits down either side. On her feet were a pair of white socks with frills, and placed behind her, her favourite pair of brown lace-up boots. At 5'5 the 24 year old had round, hazel irises that seemed to fit well with her midnight blue locks – styled onto a loose bun atop her head with a blunt-cut fringe. Her skin tone was of a healthy ivory colour, and her build was slightly curvaceous with a bit of muscle tone. Her guild mark was currently hidden beneath her clothes, but a single black dice with white dots hovered just above the palm of her hand.
"Yeah," Maeve smiled softly in reply, "It's really been a while." The two girls leaned over the table for a hug, embracing each other for a few moments before pulling back with a grin. "Though it's a bit sad that nothing much has changed. I was hoping for something drastic to come back to."
"Well, they say there's no place like home." Raven joked, looking toward the doors as they creaked open once again.
The next few to walk in seemed to be more focused, and noticed the presence of the returnee almost immediately, unlike Raven. They all greeted her happily, thankful she'd actually made it back. Jobs assigned by the King were always tough after all. "Maeve, it's good to see you back in one piece." Ryuga nodded toward her. "Where'd you come back from? Do Tristan and Iris know you've returned?"
"Good afternoon Ryuga. And yes, I sent them a message a few days ago… but I made a silly mistake of not sending it earlier. They're probably expecting me back later this week, rather than today." She scratched her cheek in embarrassment and went to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I feel really bad for not sending anything back until now."
"Really, I'm sure it's okay. As long as you're safe y'know?" Ancidia was quick to reassure.
The last few guild members streamed in, and Maeve's eyes lit up as she jumped from her cushion and rushed over to her teammates, enveloping them into a bear hug. "Tristan, Iris! It's nice to see you again!"
"Y-You're back sooner than we'd expected…" Iris wheezed, partially in shock and also due to the bone-crushing embrace. She opened her mouth to say more, but before they could properly reunite, the Royal Highnesses and the Officials filed in, one by one slowly seating themselves into the velvet chairs. Seeing King Decim's solemn expression, they sent eachother a look of promise to talk later before swiftly going back to kneel down on the cushions.
Not one to waste time, the King cleared his throat, letting the meeting commence. As usual, he went straight to the point, "We gather here today, to discuss the undercover findings of the Raiders. Miss Ross has been observing the Raiders during her time of disappearance, and has come back with the news that the Raiders will be attempting to invade Gladiolus under the pretence that they are merely normal citizens."
"So our job is to find them, and make sure they don't get any further than…?"
"Freesia." Gerald stated. "You have to hold them off before they reach that point, and make sure a barrier is created at the border of both Empires. However long this takes, our armies will take over your usual duties of the jobs requested by citizens."
"But what if one of the soldiers get caught up with an undercover Raider?"
"They'll be given orders to keep a close eye on them, but to wait for your back up. We cannot afford to send our strongest armies out just yet. And those that do get placed on the job still don't have enough skill to defeat them with confidence." The Constable supplied.
Words continued to be fired back and forth as they discusses certain ideas and plans for different situations. There was the occasional moment of frustration, and the meeting had well exceeded an hours' time when it finally began to come to an end. "I'll give you a week to plan this out. I want you in your usual teams, as you're already best acquainted with each other's skills… Teddy, you will be in Iris' team. I believe your magic works well with theirs. Please think carefully using the time you've received; we may have to begin earlier if they invade within the next two days."
"Yes, Master."
"Your Vitality Check will be in 3 days, just to be certain you're all fit to go." The King's gaze drifted over a few of the guild members before he released a sigh. "Only time will tell, if you shall be the last generation of this guild. But I've come to believe that this century-old war… may come to an end in the hands of you; Jupiter's Reign."
Credits
Milo Vincent - Phantom Wish
Cassia Flamenco - Candied Snowflakes
Irisviel Grace - Wanderstar
Jake Derrickson - Deadly101
Gareth Falchion - Heatnation
Maeve Ross - Crisis
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So that was the link toward the next arc, I know it's different to the prologue, but both still lead to the same concept/problem (and it may have seemed like I got lazy toward the end, but I just didn't want the chapter to be too long). There is still one last introduction chapter where we see the Raider's side of things.
REVIEW CORNER
Benthino;Thank goodness you enjoyed it! I was a bit worried about posting after taking such a long break. And thank you for the feedback, I really enjoyed writing Lucretzia. And yes, while there is no longer an old Black Bear, I'm happy I decided to continue this one. Thank you :)
PoisonBanana; Well, those trainees are still in for a lot more. I think we may see them in training quite a few times throughout the story. Sometimes they're good for comedic lines. Anyway, I'm glad I've continued this story as well! Thanks heaps!
Candied Snowflakes; Well yes, people often judge abnormalities and I'm trying to relate back to the olden days as well after all, where women are seen as objects, or simple housewives. It's fun to show that anyone can kick ass anyway CX I hope I've depicted Cassia well!
ShadedLyht; Ah, yes… I'm really sorry for the long wait. But hopefully I won't be on hiatus often. Maybe only when I've got exams approaching. Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't get to see who was challenged next, but the story's gotta continue, and we'll be seeing much more action in the future! Thank you for the review!
Blue Blast; Thank you for the compliment :) It means a lot to me! And yes, I'm feeling much better now that everything's over. Especially after everyone's reviews… they make me really happy! ^_^ I hope you've enjoyed this chapter just as much as the previous one!
Grimlock Ebonheart; I hope you this chapter was as entertaining as the last one you've read, and yes, I think most of the guild members will have a small scene with the new recruits. You'll just have to wait and see what Tristan decides to do!
altajir65; Well you saw some action from Sakura already! But everyone's definitely going to have a few bad ass scenes here and there, you'll just have to be a bit patient! I'm glad you liked the chapter!
U-Know Yunho; I'm happy you've remembered this story then! And I'm glad I've done Ryuga justice in the previous chapter. I actually began writing him as slightly more mature, but changed a few of his lines as I was editing XD. Hopefully you've enjoyed this chapter as well.
-Crisis