Chapter 10

The Town By The Shore

Days had passed since they left the island of wonders. They flew all day and rested all night. They still had a long way to go to get to their destination. No matter how much Lucy asked Terobilus where they were going, he still kept quiet. Though, she wasn't afraid, for she had grown to trust him. for now, he was all she had, and she wasn't planing on letting that go so soon.

"That's it!" Lucy got up and looked at the boy next to her. They were now resting at a small islet in the middle of no where, and since it was so small Terobilus needed to enter his human form.

"We can't keep going like this, you'll end up collapsing if you keep pushing yourself! Tomorrow I'll fly next to you instead of on you. It may not help a bunch, but at least you can fly a bit more freely and besides.. I need to move a bit.. Sitting all day and resting all night, it's killing me!" She said, crossing her arms to express herself a bit more.

"But, Lucy.." He started but was cut off by his blonde companion.

"No but's! I can and I will fly!" He sighed in defeat. He knew he'd already lost. "Please, be careful. Don't forget you're infected." She nodded, eager to get going. She sat down again and a gust of wind blew through her hair. Her hair had grown longer, she wanted to try out a new style. She smiled sadly as she watched the stars starting to appear on the black painted sky.

"Don't worry. After you're cured you can go back." Then, she did something unexpected. She shook her head from left to right. He looked at her, confused. Lucy noticed his feelings and started to explain.

"There's still someone after me, right? The one that cursed me. If I were to go back.. They might target my friends to get to me. I don't want that, I want to make sure they're safe. They're my family after all." She started to look after constellations. As she found one, she gripped Terobilus's shirt and pulled him closer to herself. She made sure he saw things from her angle and pointed on a constellation.

"That's Gemini, the twins." She showed how it looked with her fingers. When he finally spotted the stars she was pointing at, she started to tell him the story of how they both came to the night sky.

After so long on a train, they finally reached their destination. The town's entrance was huge. A sign on the left side that said 'Malba'. It was big and beautiful. The streets were crowded with both wizards and non-wizards. The town was placed by the coast of Fiore.

As they got further into the town a big mansion was soon in sight east for the group. It had a big beautiful garden filled with all kinds of flowers. Some red, others white, yellow and blue, even black.

"Who's there?" Said a shaky voice from behind. They turned towards the direction the voice and was greeted by a little girl. Dark green hair and grey eyes. She wore a pink dress with purple and white roses on the bottom of the skirt. She looked at them with a shy look, Yukino gave her a warm smile.

"Hello there, I believe this is where the major of Malba lives, am I right?" She asked, the girl smiled back, a shy little smile. "What a pretty lady! Papa is in his study, he's been troubled by something lately. He's been waiting for some mages from a guild called 'saber tooth' or something.." She walked towards them with small steps until she was right in front of Yukino. She bent a bit down to get closer to the little girl.

"We're the mages from saber tooth. My name is Yukino and I'm a celestial mage." The little girl's eyes brightened. She looked at Yukino in an awe. "I can show you to papa's study!"

"Thank you ms.." "Coco! That's what my friends call me.." She looked away in a shy was, gazing at a spot on the ground. "What a fitting nickname for such a cute little girl."

"It's like we're not even here.." Lector said as he looked at the girl's talk. "Maybe they'll totaly forget we're here.." Rouge said. "Frosh agrees!" Frosh said, raising a paw in the air.

"Rouge, Sting, Frosh, Lector! Come on, Coco's showing us the way to the major's office." The boys and exceeds ran over to them as they all walked towards the big doors of the mansion. "Lady Roset, dinner will soon be prepared!" A maid that was washing the floor said. "What are we eating today?" She asked the maid.

"You have to ask the chief that!" She smiled sweetly. Coco nodded and continued to walk towards her father's study. They went up stairs and past doors until they stood in front of a big wooden door.

"Papa's in there! See you later, Yu-chan!" She said as she ran of, waving at Yukino who wived back at her. They knocked on the door when Coco was out of sight.

"Come in." They went in to see a man in his thirty's sitting at his desk with a huge pile of paperwork. He had little hair on his head, but a lot under his nose. "We're the wizards from sabe-" They was jumped out of his chair and ran over to them. "So you're finally here, thank god.-" He sighed in relief. "As you know there had been a hooded figure a few days ago who fooled a few of the shops in the town. We haven't seen any sign after it after that, but we have lost a lot of goods and products, and more important. Money!" He waved his hand over to some chairs in fron of his desk for them to sit down in and he sat in the chair he sat in before.

"We don't know who it is, all we have is the picture on the poster. So for them to pay us back we need to track them down. That's where you step in." He eyed them all carefully. "And how do you expect us to do this, mister major?" Yukino asked. "You're wizards, you'll figure something out." He smiled. "As promised, I'll pay you 200.000 jewls, but only after the mission is over." They nodded in agreement.

"You can start whenever you have to, just don't wait for over three days."

"Don't worry. We'll start right away." He nodded and smiled even wider. "I'll let you stay at our mansion. We have room's for you to use if you'd like."

"We'd love to."

"Mister mustache, you don't happen to have something from the thief, do you?" Sting asked the major. He looked at him. "No, I don't. But you can ask the stores that were fooled, they have the bags the money were in. If that's of any help in your search." Sting simply nodded. They got up, said their goodbyes and went to search for this hooded figure.

"Let's start with the first store to be fooled. The magic store near the shore.." They all agreed and started to walk.

'If it really is you, Lucy.. I'll help you, as a fellow celestial wizard..' She was interupted in her thoughts when she felt a force pushing her down like she had just tripped over. Right before she hit ground she was stopped by an arm grabbing her wrist, securing her. She looked up at the person who'd just helped her.

Pink hair.

My my! Pink hair huh? I wonder.. Do we know anyone with pink hair? ;D

-Nofir