Chapter 10: Homecoming

After a few minutes of arguing and trying to keep Sting and Natsu from a physical fight, the group began to make their way back to the town of Magnolia. Turns out they were in the outskirts of the city, but still had a good couple of hours of walking to do. Espeo and Lucy were hitting it off as they walked, discussing anything and everything and answering each other's questions happily. Beside them were Natsu and Lilla, with Gray in between them for safety purposes as Happy flew overhead muttering something about wanting fish. Behind the group of Fairies were Sting and Rogue, with Xandra beside them but trailing a step or two behind.

Xandra felt a few pokes on her calf as she walked and looked down. Her emotionless face suddenly shifted to confusion. The item of her daydreaming from earlier was beside her, looking up at her timidly. "Fro is still curious about your friend."

Xandra blinked and raised a brow at the green cat. It was a green cat and it was in a frog suit. Although, after spending a bit of time around the blue, winged cat, this one wasn't much of a shock to her anymore. On her other side, a brownish-red cat in a blue, open vest was nodding its head. "I'm curious about this Mia, too."

"Where did the cats come from?" Xandra muttered to herself and laughed a little before stopping and picking up the green cat, cradling it in her arms. "Fro, is it?"

"Frosch," the other cat corrected as the frog cat nuzzled itself into Xandra's chest happily. "And I'm Lector. We're Sting and Rogue's friends."

Xandra smiled down at Lector and then looked at Frosch as she started walking again. She was decently far behind the group now, but she was okay with that. Being alone was perfectly fine by her, but then again, she really wasn't alone.

"Who was Mia?" Frosch asked gently, yawning a little.

As Xandra began describing Mia and telling them about how she'd met the girl at the academy she attended in her own world, Rogue and Sting couldn't help but smile at one another as they both glanced over their shoulders at the girl. If their Exceeds approved of her, she couldn't be all that bad. Rogue watched Frosch nuzzle herself into the girl's arm and smiled a bit more and Sting laughed gently as Lector questioned the girl on every little detail about Mia's appearance, asking about her hair color, eye color, and even asking if she wore a necklace as detailed as Xandra's.

Xandra laughed at the last question. "No, this is my thing. She really loved rings and metal bracelets though. She always had at least 2 rings on each hand and wore a lot of metal arm cuffs that matched her bracelets. I think the reason for it was because they were enhanced with different elements to help her magic, but I'll never know for sure. All of her things were moved into my dorm room at school, but I haven't found the time to go through them. It's weird, thinking I have to go through her things. I wonder why they wouldn't be sent off to her family, she always spoke so highly of them."

Lector's wings appeared on his back and he hopped up into the air beside Xandra and then settled on her shoulder. He eyed the two dragon slayers walking in front of them. Xandra cocked her head a bit and she and Frosch both followed his gaze. The two boys snapped their heads forward again and the two cats and the girl laughed. "They're listening. As dragons, they've got incredible hearing," Lector muttered.

Xandra heard the cat perfectly, not only because he was right by her ear, but also because of her own increased hearing. She chuckled a bit and nodded, mimicking the cat's whispering. "Thanks."

Lector nodded and Frosch spoke up now, also whispering. "Fro thinks that if she didn't want her family to have her things, that maybe her family had no use for them." Lector and Xandra both looked at her, and then Xandra gave a nod and a shrug. "What would dragons do with human things anyways?"

Xandra stopped and blinked, staring ahead blankly. She'd never thought about that before. Mia had been raised by dragons, multiple dragons, in order to perfect her magic and the Dragon Master magic she'd been granted. It made sense now. Frosch was right, dragons wouldn't have a use for Mia's clothes and elemental increasers. Hell, who knew if the administration would even be able to find the dragons that raised the girl. Why not make it easier on themselves and just give the girl's things to her best friend, who had no one else. Xandra was nodding at her thoughts, slowly taking them in. Lector poking her cheek brought her back to reality and she laughed.

"You okay there, tiger mage?" Xandra chuckled. All of these new nicknames seemed to revolve around her hair. What made them even more entertaining was that they were probably, secretly, pissing Lilla off since she was an actual tigress. Sure, Xandra had a tiger form too, but it was fake and she could only use it around people that didn't know what she was. The perk of being a Hidden in the school, but here, these people already knew part of her magic, so there was no need to be Hidden. At this point though, Xandra wasn't sure if Espeo and Lilla's magic had been legitimately revealed to their new acquaintances either, so maybe the three of them were Hidden in a way.

"Are you Fro's new friend?" It was like the green cat had heard one of the last words she'd been thinking, and Xandra nearly laughed at that. Instead, the girl smiled and nodded down at the cat, starting to walk again. They were even farther behind the group, but they were probably still within earshot of the dragon slayers. Natsu most likely would have been able to hear them too, but he was too caught up in telling Lilla, with the help of Gray, about all of the things Fairy Tail's done.

"Of course I'm your new friend, Frosch." Xandra smiled and looked over at Lector, "And you two are my new friends, right?"

Lector nodded, grinning. "So you summon spirits like a celestial mage?" Xandra nodded, looking forward again to make sure she knew where she was going. "Why don't you use keys?"

Xandra laughed a little, "In my world, I'm given charms, not keys. I guess that's just the way it goes."

"Are these all of the spirits you have?" He asked, prodding the charm-covered chains on her choker.

Xandra shook her head and reached into her back pocket, holding Frosch tightly with one arm so she wouldn't fall. She pulled out a large, metal ring that also had charms on it and handed it to Lector without looking at it. "Those are the rest of my charms, mainly my Zodiac charms. It's supposed to be a bracelet but the idea of the charms constantly moving around makes me feel like they'll fall off, so I usually keep it in my pocket, or wherever it'll actually fit."

Lector raised a brow and shook the ring of keys in the girl's face as she shifted Frosch a bit in her arms. "These are celestial wizard's keys. Aren't there only supposed to be one of each gold key?"

Xandra blinked, shocked at the discovery and words of the cat. "In my world there are 2 of each Zodiac charm, so maybe even though I'm in your world, I can still have my Zodiacs. That would probably explain why they transformed into keys too."

Lector nodded, "Yeah, that would make sense I guess."

Xandra and the exceeds continued talking after running to catch up with Sting, Rogue, and the others. They were entering the city now, and the group was getting looks here and there from the people they passed by. Many murmurs ran through the little crowds of people, mostly questioning why there were so many Sabertooth mages and why some of them also had Fairy Tail marks.

Sting and Rogue's auras had changed and they seemed incredibly tense, especially as the Fairy Tail guild came into view. Frosch had positioned herself on Xandra's head while Lector had hopped onto Sting's shoulder. Xandra was in between the boys, a step behind them again, but when she noticed the two of them tense up, she placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

Sting jumped a bit, not expecting the touch, while Rogue looked at her hand and then at her. She smiled and squeezed their shoulders a bit. "I don't know what the beef between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth is, nor do I care to be quite honest, but considering how powerful you two are, I wouldn't be so worried. I can sense the magic power coming from you guys, and since you're here on business, I don't think you guys have much to worry about."

Sting snorted a little, "You don't know Fairy Tail. These guys are crazy. And, speaking of magic power, you seem to have a ridiculous amount of it yourself. Rogue, remind me to question her about that later."

Rogue nodded and looked at Xandra's hand again before looking forward, stopping when Natsu threw the guild's doors open.

"We brought more family! Oh, and the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth apparently need to talk to the master."

There were lots of looks being shot at the group of 8 people, and 3 cats. Looks of surprise, hatred, and confusion were among the many different expressions draped over the people's faces. Many of these people seemed to have drinks in hand and the pretty, white haired girl behind the bar waved frantically at the group with a large smile plastered across her face.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!"