I hope that you all (whoever reads this) had a good Thanksgiving. I had so many relatives in town!

Well, Hiro Mashima owns the characters of Fairy Tail. Etc...

Here you go...


PART SEVEN: HORNED DEVILS

"Shark! Yarrow!" Makarov yelled as the two monsters started to transform into the hideous elk-forms that was keeping the rest of the guild busy. These two were smaller than the other two, but were still bigger than any elk that occurred naturally.

"Shall we, Master Shark?" Yarrow said, her skin started rippling as she grew bones out of her skin. She took her preferred form; the borrowed outfit was kept safe because it didn't cover much of the areas that she grew horns of. It actually didn't cover much to begin with.

"Hell yeah, finally some action!" Shark said. His pale skin tightened as his muscles grew bigger and he started to grow tiny scales on most of his skin, his hands and face were spared from the tiny scales.

Since Shark could do rapid regeneration, he took a few years to build his muscles, then he returned to his normal muscle mass. Since his body had once had the muscles, it was considered just regenerating to a previous state. Two white bones peeked out of the dark blue hair on the top of his head and curved forward creating an open halo around his head. An elongated bone started to grow from his left shoulder. He grabbed it and obtained his weapon.

They stood silently as the monsters approached the two of them.

"Ready?" Shark asked. His voice was slightly shaking, "This will be the first time we show off to the rest of the guild."

Yarrow smirked. She looked at her fellow, fighting nakama. She has her worries, but being surrounded by her nakama, she felt a wave of confidence. "I'm all fired up, Shark."

That was one of the only times that she got away with not addressing anyone as "Master." They both wait for the others breathing to calm.

"Go," they muttered in unison as they both darted to their respective Aberts monsters. Yarrow reaches hers first and attempts to connect a punch anywhere on the animal. She has a few successful attacks as she demolishes a few bones in the front legs. There were bones sticking out of random parts in the animals forelimbs, subject to the demolishing force of Yarrow. She still wasn't sure where the major points of weakness were on these monsters, but immobilizing these animals was a good start.

Shark caught the monster with his bone lance by the neck. He pulls the bone lance out of the animal. He makes the scales on his forearm stand up on end, making a blade out of his bone.

The monster reared up on its hind legs and struck at Shark. He quickly moved forward, using the sharp lance as a shield by propping up the animal coming down on him as he darted from the attack. He swung his sharpened arm across the exposed belly of the monster. The monster made a bellowing noise at its attacker. It backed away from the offensive threat in front of it.

Yarrow saw that her monster was already slowing down with the broken front limbs. She could see in its eyes that it was appalled that it was being beaten by a single person. She saw in the corner of her eye that Sharks monster was rearing up again. He was slashing at it with combination attacks from his lance and his sharpened scales. She pushed her monster back a little.

"Shark, now!" Yarrow yelled to her partner. She turned away from him. She shielded her face with her armored arm, but kept the monster in sight. She more felt than saw Shark crouch over and project some flattened rib-like bones out of his back at both his and her monsters. Her monster took only a moment to fall to the ground, she was confident that it would not be standing back up again. She rushed over to it and grabbed its head and fractured its skull into its brain case. The animal made a moaning sound as its life left the planet.

Shark did a similar motion by shoving his lance into eye socket of the creature. There were many spikes sticking into both of the monsters. Shark looked to see how his partner was fairing against her monster. He saw it was on the ground with the final blow delivered. He just grinned at her. They both shifted their attention to the two remaining monsters. Yarrow went to see if she could help with Natsu, Gajeel, Gray, Lluvia, Erza and Lucy. By the time she got over to them, the monster was a charred pile of flesh curtsey of Natsu's Dragon Roar.

They all grin at each other and look to see the last remaining monster. Elfman was in his horned lizard soul takeover, so he looked a lot like Yarrow and Shark's bone armor forms. The animal fell just before Shark could arrive at the scene. Shark smiled at Elfman and high-fived him, he approved of his appearance.

"Hey, Yarrow, I think that there is another Horned Devil to add to our namesake!" Shark yelled. Elfman grinned and returned to normal. Yarrow turns all of her armor to dust and it falls around her like a tiny explosion of white dust.

"That smells horrible!" Gajeel exclaims referring to the bone dust that his sensitive nose just inhaled. Even Yarrow thought that it smelled weird, she tried to convey it by ginning awkwardly and making a nervous chuckle.

"Oi! Yarrow!" Shark yelled. He grew most of his scales out and they plopped around him with tiny plink sounds. Sometimes, he doesn't have good precision with his expelling of his armor and he grows a bone and it gets stuck. He was frozen in a high-five position because some of the scales in his arm were enlarged and he is unable to get dispel it from himself without expelling his skeletal bones, "Yarrow!"

Yarrow slowly made her way to him, "Yes, Master Shark?" She was having fun with the dare she was subject to now. Knowing that she had a power over her brother.

"You damn well know what's wrong," Shark growled at her.

Yarrow laughed. The rest of the group congregates around the two. "Whatever do you mean, Master Shark?"

"I'm stuck like this, feather-brain," He snarled as he said the childish insult to his sister.

"I wouldn't blame her if she didn't help him," Lucy stated. "It's nice knowing that one of the troublemakers is… retained, if only half of him."

"Yarrow, I didn't mean it!" Shark's tone softened, knowing that his sister would leave him like that. "Please!?"

"Hold your breath or something," Yarrow smiled and flicked his shoulder, in the same fashion that her armor came off, Sharks shoulder was freed. After the cloud settled on the ground, Makarov came to them.

"I am sorry to say this, but we are lacking a lot of the firepower that we used to. I brought Yarrow and Shark along for a comparison," He put a reassuring hand on Sharks freed shoulder, "You two did fine, and your teamwork is superb." He added as he moved to the center of the group.

"From what Makao told me, Shark and Yarrow have about the same power as Natsu and Gray did before we disappeared. We need to focus on regaining our magic stamina!" He was received by a large cheer from Fairy Tail. The monster was defeated and they were more than willing to fight more to regain their status in the world of mages.

They started their walk back. "Natsu," Makarov called to the Dragon Slayer. "You owe Yarrow a thank you."

"Oh so the old man noticed it?" Shark mentioned. Yarrow groaned, she thought that she would be able to keep it secret for a little while longer.

"He did? Oh man, I thought that I was going to be able to get away with it!" Yarrow pouted. She waited a few seconds, then remembered her dare, "Master Shark."

"Why do I owe her thanks?" Natsu was confused.

Makarov hit him hard in the chest. Natsu barely felt it, "That is why." Natsu still looked confused.

Lucy had a moment of epiphany. "She hardened your bones!"

Yarrow smiled from in front of the group. They really did find out. Damn that Makarov and Lucy. Natsu was still confused. Lucy explained that when Yarrow and he fought, she added a layer of hard bone to his bones. Or that is what she speculated.

"Yarrow, what exactly did you do?" Lucy asked. She was only guessing.

"Pneumatic, iron-fused bone," She said simply.

She was met with confused faces. "Pneumatic bones are what are in birds, it's a strong, but light type of bone. It's also the type of bone that is suspected to be in Dragons. Iron-fused is when there is lots of iron in the bone, like beavers teeth. It makes the bone darker, making it look orange or red. It makes it slightly heavier than just pneumatic bones, but it makes it ten times stronger. You didn't even notice, did you, Master Natsu?" He looked up at her. He was still dwelling on the fact that she gave him bones that are supposed to be that of a dragons. He smiled at her.

"You really are a devil," He grinned at her. "Thank you!"

They made their way back to spa with the heads of two of the monsters. The one that Yarrow smashed wouldn't be good to transport and the charred one wasn't preserved well either.

"What are we going to do with them?" Lucy asked when the group got to the front steps of the spa. Nobody really wanted to take the smelly, creepy looking heads into the spa.

"I will present them to the town leaders at town hall and receive payment," He said while taking the two heads with him.

"Well I guess we can relax?" Levi stated the question more of a declaration. She was itching to take her plastic jumpsuit off. She could barely move during the battle. Gajeel almost never left her side during the trip back, obviously liking the change of style of the bluenette.

"Wait!" Erza looked menacingly at some of the women. Yarrow took a moment to step back from the group. Natsu followed her a few steps away from the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" Natsu asked. He took it from last night that Yarrow will do things that will prevent awkward situations for herself. Except her outfit, Natsu looked away and tried to hide a blush from her when he noticed her outfit again.

"Watch, you'll get a nice dose of entertainment," Yarrow had a smirk on her face. At that moment, there was a collective movement from some of the ladies. Lisanna kissed Shark, Levi did the same with Gajeel, Lluvia with Gray then she fainted after touching him. All of the guys that were subject to this mass movement were all completely frozen. Yarrow burst out laughing. Natsu (and most all of the other males) jaw hit the ground.

Yarrow cackled loudly enough to gain the attention of Erzas death glare. "You laugh now, Yarrow. Wait until we figure out who you are eyeballing."

"Not going to happen. I will never willingly offer up that information, Master Erza," Yarrow pulled the leash attached to her collar and twirled it. "I've already embarrassed myself enough, don't you think?"

Gray was hovering over the fainted Lluvia, coxing her back to consciousness. Levi ran into the spa, her outfit squeaking the whole way. Gajeel was still frozen with a look of shock on his face. It was sweet knowing that there was a chink in the Iron Dragon Slayer's armor. Lisanna turned bright pink after not getting a solid reaction from Shark. She ran in a different direction that Levi ran.

"What just happened?" Natsu muttered. Lucy walked up and stood by him and Yarrow.

"Girls getting together, this is what happens," Lucy said, joining Yarrow in a laugh.

Cana stuck out her tongue and walked into the spa, she wasn't interested in the puppy love of her guild mates. She went straight for the bar in the lobby.


Till next time,

Amber