Again, I'm sorry for the late update. Apparently teachers think it's funny to give you two essays and then add a project on top of that. Actually, I don't really get a lot of homework, I'm just really lazy and love to procrastinate. I don't own Fairy Tail, the troll king does. (I'm still pissed about the Nashi thing)
My Most Special Friends
Chapter 10: Sting and Rogue
Lucy's POV
I tightened my hold on the spike in front of me as Zonith dropped a few feet and my stomach with it. (A/N: I love it when airplanes drop or go over turbulence but I know some people hate it)
"We'll let you off here near the edge of the forest. There you can catch a taxi to Carrus, the town nearby," Zonith said. I nodded. Lisanna nor I ever questioned Caelum and Zonith's inexplicable knowledge of the human world. We had a theory that they had spies, but it didn't really matter.
The dragons dropped again and I laughed. Lisanna grinned at me from Caelum's back.
"Exciting!" she called.
I laughed again. "You said it!"
The two dragons landed with a bump on the ground right near the forest.
I slipped down from Zonith's back and landed lightly on the ground with black air magic to steady me.
"Are you sure it's safe to go out this far?" asked Lisanna with her hand on Caelum's side.
"It'll be alright, too early in the morning," the white dragon reassured her.
"Yeah, let's go!" I screamed, letting my excitement get the better of me.
Zonith lowered her snout and nuzzled me. I staggered back and almost fell over. "Hey!"
"Good luck," she said.
"You two!" I called back.
"Let's run!" cheered Lisanna. I nodded and we took off.
We ran for about 3 hours and many miles, but that actually wasn't all that much to our standards. We could run for an entire day without stopping if forced to.
"So, I suppose this is Carrus," mused Lisanna, gazing up at the sight before us.
Carrus was bigger and more urban than Magnolia. Metal skyscrapers arched over our heads and we could already hear the city din from where we stood outside the gate.
"Who goes there?" someone called from the gates. Both of us jumped at the noise as neither of us had been paying attention. I didn't realize that this place was important enough. Actually no, people were streaming old fashionably through the gates.
"Can't you see us?" asked Lisanna.
"Well, yeah," said the guard, rolling his eyes. "But you guys are suspicious. And not be perverted, but pretty girls like you could get in a lot of trouble in a place like this."
I bared my fist. "Oh, don't worry, we can protect ourselves." I snickered.
We stepped forward and got a closer look at the guard. He was young, maybe 15 or 16 and his helmet was on sideways. But he stood up bravely. I had to admire that.
"Are you two mages?" he asked tentatively. We nodded. "Then you're here for the contest?"
"Contest?" wondered Lisanna, giving me a confused look. I shrugged.
"You haven't heard of it?" The guard seemed surprised. "But if your mages, then what's the point of being here? Shopping?"
"Could you explain this contest?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
"Sure." He nodded. "Every year for about 5 now Carrus has hosted a Wizard's Bowl. Wizards from all over Fiore come to compete. It's not a guild competition, so you can be loners, but you have to have a team of at least two. They can be assembled from different guilds. Those are only the rules for this years, they change all the time." He smiled. "Is that good?"
"Damn, Caelum, Zonith. You are both extremely clever. Very good." I sighed and scratched the back of my head.
Lisanna bowed to the guard. "Thank you very much!"
"It's fine!" he said, putting his hands up in surrender.
"Oi, Peter, get your fat butt over here!" yelled one of the other guards.
"Good luck!" Peter said to us and hurried off. Lisanna watched him go.
"What are you waiting for? Come on!" I waved to her and jogged to the gate.
"Coming!" she called back.
There appeared to be some kind of market going on in the main road. Shops were lit and stalls were set up all over the place.
"Oh, a bookstore!" I exclaimed, stopping and turning around to demand that we go. Lisanna was gazing around and not looking at all where she was going, so she crashed into my back and we went tumbling to the ground. Dust sprayed everywhere and I felt Lisanna's head hit my boobs.
"Sorry!" she wailed, scrambling off me. I sat up and rubbed my the back of my head where a bump was forming. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
I started to say something but another voice interrupted me. "Man, you girls are really clumsy. That was a brilliant fall."
I looked up still rubbing the back of my head to see a boy looking down at us. He had spiky blond and bluish eyes. He had his hands on his hips and ine eyebrow raised. Behind him was another boy with long black hair and a cloak. They both looked about 15 or 16, a few hears younger than our appearances. Two flying cats, Exceeds, I realized, floated next to them.
I stood up and glared at the boy. "For your information, we haven't been to a proper civilization for 4 years!"
"4 years?" He gave me twisted look. "What were you doing?"
Lisanna made a snuffling sound then hesitantly asked, "Hey, are you two Dragon Slayers?"
The blond boy's eyes widened. "How did you know that!? Did our reputation exceed us?"
Lisanna shook her head. "No, we're Dragon Slayers too. I could smell it." Lisanna had always had a better nose than me, probably because of her Takeover magic.
"What!?" yelled the blond boy attracting the attention of some of the shoppers. Even the black haired boy who had been standing placidly by looked at us in amazement.
The blond boy shook his head vigorously and regained his tongue. "How!? Are you first or second generation?"
"Oh, we're fi-" Lisanna began but I put my hand over her mouth to cut her off.
"No, we're second generation, I'm Lucy the Celestial Dragon and this is Lisanna, the Sky Dragon," I said hurriedly. The blond boy looked slightly confused, but then seemed to consent.
I took my hand off Lisanna's mouth. She shot me an angry look. I shot her a look back that said, 'we can't them that we're first generation or they'll start to wonder why we're here recently after all the dragons disappeared 12 years ago!' Lisanna blinked to show she understood.
"Well then, my name is Sting, I'm the Holy Dragon and this is Rogue, the Shadow Dragon, we're third generation," the blond haired boy introduced. "And together we're the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth."
"My name is Lector," said the red exceed.
"Frosch is Frosch!" said the little pink exceed who for some reason was dressed in a green frog outfit.
Third Generation, huh? I guess we qualified to be third generation since we had dragon lacrima implanted in our bodies. Caelum and Zonith had forced us to eat them about a year into training so that we could learn faster and eat air easily. Not a happy memory. It involved a lot of screaming, wailing, and chains.
"Cool," said Lisanna, nodding. Then she snickered. "Maybe we should have that name. The Twin Dragons of Fairy Tail!" She waved her hands around in front of her, giggling. I laughed too.
"Wait, you two are from Fairy Tail?" demanded Sting.
"Nah, we just used to be," I said, showing them my blank right hand and Lisanna pulled up her skirt. Lisanna's mark had long since disappeared since she had officially decided to join Twilight Sparkle.
"Did you know Natsu-kun?" Sting asked, urgency in his voice.
"We did actually..." Lisanna said, looking at me sadly.
"Yeah, I used to be on his team." I narrowed my eyes. "Why?" This was not a friendly topic.
"Sting-kun and Rogue-kun used to idolize Natsu and Gajeel!" chirped Lector.
"Idolize them?" I asked in surprise.
"Yeah," muttered Sting sheepishly. "They were older than us by seven years and they were so strong! It was our dream to fight them. But then they had to go and die." His hand clenched into a fist.
I felt the sudden urge to comfort them. Glancing at Lisanna, we both knew that we wanted to intrust them with this information.
"Hey, Sting, Rogue," Lisanna said. "They aren't dead, the Fairy Tail members. They'll return one day and then you can fight them."
Sting's head snapped up and be looked at us. "How do you know this?"
"We can't really say," I answered slowly. "But we know it for certain."
"Gajeel..." murmured Rogue. I looked at him in surprise. It was the first time he had spoken. He looked directly at us. "Thank you."
Sting blinked. "Yeah, I guess he's right. Thanks." He seemed rather shaken. Then he added, "Oh, since you're Dragon Slayers, why don't you sign up for the competition as a team?"
"We were already planning on it," Lisanna said.
"Awesome! I wanna fight you!" Sting clenched his fist.
"Oh, come on, you could never beat us," I laughed teasingly.
"Hey!" complained Sting. "Don't underestimate our power."
Rogue growled softly. "For once I actually want to fight someone."
"Seriously?" asked Sting, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, do either of you know where the sign up sheet for the Wizard Bowl is?" Lisanna asked, scratching her head and looking around.
"It's in the main magic center in town, we were just heading there now," Sting explained. "Wanna come with us?"
"Sure thanks!" Lisanna and I said at exactly the same time.
The magic center was a huge shopping mall style building. It had large glass windows and heavy marble walls. There were seven levels, all surrounding a huge open space in the center.
"Look at this!" Lisanna said, running to edge. It was an arena with a sandy bottom and seats all around. The decks from the other levels slightly overlapped it providing a great view. Spotlight were already shinning on the arena, turning the sand colors.
"I guess this where the battles will happen," Sting said, peering over the edge. I took this chance to study him better. Sting and Rogue were as tall as us but obviously a few years younger. However, I knew that in those few years they would be the same age as us. This would be a perfect opportunity to study the theory I had.
As with coming immortal, time had less meaning. 4 years had passed and neither of us had really felt it. It didn't seem to matter. The world would change but we wouldn't go with it and that was okay. We understood that loved ones would die, or old age or disease and we couldn't do a thing about it. We knew. It was just us, me and Lisanna, just us above everyone else. In a few years, and that was nothing, these boys which were younger than us would be older, wiser, and they would keep going, just growing. It was life and we were excluded.
"Hey blondie, why are you staring at me?" I was snapped out of my thought by Sting's voice. Normally I would have blushed and looked away, but love didn't seem to matter. I felt...disconnected.
"Just thinking," I said to him, smiling. He frowned and shrugged.
"The registration is one the second floor," Rogue said pointing.
"Fro thinks that you will win this!" cheered the little frog Exceed.
"Thanks Frosch," said Rogue, smiling a little.
We walked up the marble stairs to the second floor.
Lisanna slipped. "Whoa!" she yelped. I flicked my fingers and a breath of black wind wrapped itself around her wrist and pulled her upright. "Thanks, Lucy," she said. I smiled and held her hand. Yes, we only had each other in this changing world from now on.
"This is it," Rogue said quietly, pointing at a room. We walked in.
"It's surprisingly empty," I said, looking around curiously.
"Heh," agreed Sting.
"Hello there," said a voice from the desk at the far side of the room. "Are you here to sign up for the Wizard Bowl?"
"Yep!" Sting and I said at the same time.
A stout lady with curled pink hair and chained glasses was seated behind the desk. "Very well then," she said. "Are you all together or two teams?"
"Two teams," Lisanna said.
"Come write you're full name, magic, guild if you're in one, and team name," the lady said lazily, waving her hand at two stacks of paper.
"Let's see," muttered Lisanna, picking on up and looking it over. "L-I-S-A-N-N-A S-T-R-A-U-S-S." She spelled her name. "Okay Lucy." She handed me the pen and paper. I looked at it. It had a list for the team members and a column next to it for magic and another for guild. There was line on the top for guild name. I scribbled my full name, Lucy Heartfilia, under Lisanna's.
"Heartfilia? Now where have I heard that before?" Sting had poked his head over my shoulder.
"Dunno, must be common," I lied. Rogue's eyes flashed and I knew her knew, but hopefully wouldn't say.
"Lucy, what should our yea, be called?" Lisanna tapped her chin. I shrugged.
"Let's call ourselves The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth," Sting said to Rogue who merely nodded.
"Of course!" Lisanna gasped, clapping her hands together. "We'll be the Twin Dragons of Twilight Sparkle!"
I blinked. "Okay, but you realize that kinda establishes us as Sting and Rogue's rivals?"
"Awesome!" snickered Sting. "We have rivals! But who's this Twilight Sparkle?"
"Oh, that's the guild we joined after we quit Fairy Tail briefly," I explained.
"I miss them," sighed Lisanna. "Especially Rainbow. I wonder how they're doing."
"They're probably fine!" I said in an attempt to cheerful. "But we have to wait another 2 years before we can visit."
"Well, if you're done with this heartwarming exchange, could you please get out of my office?" the stout lady asked, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, we'll go!" I said. "But I have to ask how many teams and how will the tournament be set up?"
She rolled her eyes again. "There are over a hundred teams competing. For the first round, half on it will take place tomorrow and the other half the day after that. Each team will chose one member to go on. Whoever wins will get to go on to the next round and so on. From round seven two people will team compete."
"Thanks!" Lisanna said, waving as we left.
We sat down on at a table munching on cookies on the fourth level.
"I can't wait to fight you guys," growled Sting. "Don't you dare lose."
I laughed lightly. "Of course not. You're going down."
"I don't think so," growled Sting.
"Hey, we're older and we can use two magics," I countered.(A/N: Technically they're 23 years old by now but look 18)
"You can use two magics?" asked Sting, blinking. I raised my Celestial keys and Lisanna changed her arm into that of a wolfs.
"Interesting," muttered Rogue. "You could use combo attacks."
"Yep!" I said happily, knowing we had this is the bag.
"Well, that's good and all, but we'd better get going," Sting said, standing up and stretching. "I can't wait to punch some guys."
"How about we meet here before the contest tomorrow?" Lisanna suggested.
"That sounds good," agreed Sting. "We have to be here pretty early anyways, so say, 6:30?"
"Fine," both of us said readily.
"Wow, you're actually willing to get up that early and you're girls?"
"Hey!" I complained. "You've been very nonsexist, so why start now? Our teachers made us get up early during training, so we're pretty much used to it."
Sting shrugged. "There are a lot of strong women in Sabertooth. We should go. Come on, Rogue, Lector, Frosch." The black haired boy stood up and walked after him with the cats floating not far behind.
When they were out so sight I turned back to Lisanna. "That was pretty cool, meeting other Dragon Slayers."
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to facing them."
I clenched my fist. "We'll show them our real power that we've learned!"
"Come to think of it," Lisanna said. "We never did tell that we were actually first generation."
"Third," I corrected her. "We ate those lacrima, remember?"
Lisanna shivered. "Don't remind me."
I grimaced. "Same."
I stood up and put my hands on the table. "We should probably get going to and find a place to spend the night." I yawned. "And get some rest. It would be rather shameful if we didn't pass the first round after all this practice." Lisanna giggled and we padded towards the stairs.
I just realized, Lucy and Lisanna need Exceeds. Any ideas? Thanks to everyone who reviewed, they said a lot of kind things. You might also be wondering after this chapter whether this will be Sticy or Roli, but I'm still considering pairings. Thank you!
FrühingDragon