Do you know this feeling? It's summer and you just sit outside with a good book and read.. and read... and read... and you really can't stop to read, forgetting everything else because this book is just this good.
And every day I wanted to write but these books just wouldn't let me. And now I have to wait till the next comes out, oh how I hate to wait for the next book!
So I am really sorry that you had to wait this long. Especially since I always told myself that in summer I will have all the time to write...
Well have fun and tell me what you think!
Waking up the next morning Lucy smiled, remembering that she saved a Celestial Spirit the day before and that she has now a new family member.
"Hey Cer, wake up! We need to tell the Mayor about our finished mission and eat, we need to eat. I'm starving!"
Not waiting for him to stand up, Lucy goes in the bathroom and gets ready for the day. Knowing that she will meditate soon and then run, she just wears comfortable clothes.
While Cer gets ready himself she calls the room service for breakfast.
After their quick breakfast Lucy and Cer make more room, to have enough space inside to call Luna to make the contract. Cer changes into his human form and steps to the side, giving them a little privacy, because he doesn't know how Luna will react to him.
"I am linked to the path to the World of Celestial Spirits, now! O Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Open Gate of the Wolf, Lupus!"
Out of the Gate steps a beautiful wolf. Now with her fur free of any blood or filth Lucy is able to see that she was wrong about her fur. Yes it's still gold but just in some places. It seems that the gold she saw the day before were just the golden patterns on her dark blue, almost black, fur that glowed through the filth and blood. Seeing this makes her happy and sad at the same time. This means that poor Luna was so filthy and bloody that you weren't even able to tell that her normal fur was this dark.
Looking in Luna's eyes, Lucy is happy to see that they are no longer dull from all the pain and instead glowing in happiness and hope. The former dull grey is now a radiant violet with golden specks.
If she didn't know better she would have thought that this isn't the same wolf.
"Hello, Princess. I would like to thank you for my saving and ask of you to be my new Key Holder.", Luna bows to Lucy.
"Oh Luna, there really is no need to bow before me! And I would love to make a contract with you.", Lucy beams at the wolf, seeing the quick glance she makes to Cer she adds, "This is Cerberus or for short Cer. I assume that my other Spirits told you about him?" "Yes they did. And I hope that we will be great friends too.", she answers somewhat shyly.
"You have a human form too, don't you? If it's okay with you I would love to see it! I heard that you are able to use Moon Magic when you are in your human form?"
Instead of answering Luna changes her form.
Before them stood a beautiful girl around Lucy's age. She wears a long dress in the same color as her fur, with a broad golden belt. The dress has a long slit in the front, so that it won't hinder her running. Around her neck is something that looks like a massive golden necklace connected to the dress to hold it in place.
Around her wrists and ankles are the same golden patterns her fur had. Her eyes are the same radiant violet with golden specks. And her hair which, too, has the same color as her fur with some golden wisps is long, almost all the way to the ground in two loose piggy-tails and two shorter bangs. Between these bangs and piggy-tails are wolf ears.
Lucy and especially Cer can only stare in awe at her beauty, she looks just so exotic. Even though the gold makes her appearance warmer, she radiates a cool power. But this is very suitable for her Moon Magic.
Luna snaps with her right hand and a long light blue, almost silver, staff appears. The only decoration this staff has is the crescent moon on top of it.
"Yes Princess, with this staff I can use my Moon Magic. I must say it has been a long time since I was able to call my staff, all my previous Masters hadn't had enough magic to do so. It feels really good to hold him again. You should know that I only can use my Moon Magic when the sun has set and the fuller the moon is the stronger is my magic. I still can call my staff when the sun is out but then I can only use him as a weapon. So I would like to ask you to only call me to fight when the sun has set, but otherwise you can call me every time you want to. I would love to spent more time with the both of you to get to know you better! Oh and in my wolf form I am really good at hunting or scouting for any dangers since my senses are all heightened and I am very fast.", she explains.
"First of all, wow, you look so beautiful Luna! Of course in both of you forms. And I am very happy that I am strong enough so that you can call your staff again. Maybe sometime soon I can call you at Night so you can show me your Moon Magic?", Luna nods and Lucy continues, "Loke told me that you wanted to speak with the villagers? How about I send you back and call you again after I was able to speak with the Mayor?"
"That would be fine with me. But please tell the Mayor that I can't be out for too long since I am still recovering but I wanted to say goodbye to my friends if they want to speak with me." "Alright, then I will call you later and warn him, should I tell him what happened or do you want to do it yourself?" "I would like to do it myself if he agrees to speak with me." "Then I will do just that." Lucy smiles and she and Cer, who had finally stopped staring, says goodbye to Luna.
After that Lucy quickly packs her bag and summons Virgo to take it with her.
Before leaving the room, they put everything back into place.
An hour later they leave the village.
Luckily the Mayor agreed to speak with Luna as he remembers her. He even had asked his wife to call for the kids Luna always played with so that they could say goodbye as well.
Seeing the interaction between them all makes Lucy so happy. This shows her that there are people, mage or not, who aren't treating Celestial Spirits like tools or servants. No, here you can clearly see the bond they build up, a bond which makes Lucy think about what could have happen to the the Mage who turned dark. Well maybe she will find out someday. And if she finds him, she will make sure that he pays for what he did.
Since it's still rather early Lucy decides to meditate before jogging.
This time she calls out Crux to spend some time with Cer, she wants all of her Spirits to spend time with him. But at the moment she isn't able to call out another Gold Key during meditation so she will first start with all her Silver Keys.
Again like the other times, Capricorn notices that there is a slight improvement detectable and smiles proudly. Roughly half an hour later Lucy falls back, exhausted from her meditation and simultaneously having open two Gates.
"Lucy-sama, I have thought about a possibility to further help you expand your magic containers. I would advise to try and hold open a Silver Key for as long as possible but not so long as you would empty your second origin too. After some time you can start this with Gold Keys. Normally I wouldn't suggest this when you are outside but I believe with Cerberus at your side you have enough protection in case something happens, furthermore some of us are still able to force our own Gates open should we need to. And in the worst case you still have your second origin. This constant use of magic will force your container to replenish your magic faster and expand you containers in the process, of course this too is a slow process.", Capricorn explains.
Before Lucy can reply something he seems to remember something and speaks up again, "Oh and don't forget that I told you to try and meditate in the morning and at Night before sleeping. Not only in the morning like you did these last days. If you want to only meditate once a day I would suggest to do it as Night since you will be able to do better under the stars. Something the Spirit King told me about to help you is to completely empty both of your containers around an hour before going to sleep. This too will force your containers to replenish your magic faster and it will help you to learn how to cope with magic exhaustion. As you know, mages get very sleepy, almost motionless, when they have no magic left but this way your body will get used to the feeling and after some time you will be able to stay awake longer and longer until you even can fight a little without magic."
"Alright, thanks Capricorn, if you think that this is a good idea I will do just that. And now I have to get up and start my daily jog. Do you think I can call out Vulpecula to jog with us to start and see how long I can keep her Gate open?", Lucy asks, memorizing all advices for later.
"I believe Vulpecula would love to jog with you, Lucy-sama. If that was all I will take my leave and wait for your calling this Night.", Capricorn bows.
"Thanks Capricorn and Grandpa Crux! Open Gate of the Fox, Vulpecula!"
"Lucy-nee!", Vul as a little girl happily jumps into Lucy's arms and hugs her. "Hey Vul! Cer and I will start my daily jog and since Capricorn told me so call out a Silver Key and see how long I am able to hold open the Gate, I thought that maybe you want to jog with us?", she beams at the little girl in her arms.
"Yes I would love to!", she immediately jumps out of her arms and changes into a fox.
Cer comes over and changes too and then they start jogging.
At first Lucy doesn't really feel a pull at all on her magic. But with Vul being a Silver Key and not using any magic that is normal. This still surprises her though because she already had used quite a bit of her magic, with calling out Luna, but she too didn't use magic, Crux and Capricorn. Maybe Loke was right and this has something to do with the earrings she got from her Dad, she hadn't really thought about it before but it did seem a little easier to call her Spirits.
The more exhausted her body is from jogging the more strenuous it is to hold open the Gate.
A half hour later she definitely feels the pull on her magic and she knows that if she had open a Gold Key, she wouldn't be able to do this much longer.
Another half hour later, they just stopped jogging and are now taking a lunch break together, Lucy is almost ready to send Vul back. But she is determinate to test out her limits.
Fifteen minutes later she reaches her limit, knowing that if Virgo hadn't forced her own Gate open to bring them the lunch she would have to send Vul back earlier. Lucy knows that she need to send her back know or she won't be able to continue for quite some time.
They rest a little longer and then resume their walk to Hargeon, the next city with their last mission.
"Why doesn't happen anything at all?! What do I need to do? What did I different during the fight with that Dark Mage?!", Lucy growls out annoyed.
When it became dark they found a nice little clearing next to a little stream.
And after her training session with Loke, Lucy wanted to try and use, what she assumes is Aquarius Magic, the Water Magic again. But to no avail.
She doesn't even know where to start. And wishes desperately for Aquarius to be hear and help her. This thought only leads to her crying, with her tears dropping in the river.
Cer feeling her sadness comes and sits beside her, already guessing why she is crying and just wants to offer her comfort with his presence. Lucy feeling him at her side turns around and just hugs him until her tears stop and she can breath normal again.
They sit there a little longer, just gazing at the water until Virgo call them for dinner.
After her dinner she again calls out Capricorn to meditate.
To deplete her magic, Capricorn asks her to call out another Golden Key and open her second origin just before the first is empty. And if she feels up to it he asks her to call a third Spirit, a Silver Key. Normally he would ask her to cast Urano Metria but he thinks that at the moment she is too exhausted to do that without endangering herself.
Lucy calls out Loke, and suggest that they fight with their magic against each other to speed up the process and so she can see how long she can hold open two Golden Gates while they fight and use magic. With her almost constant use of magic this day, she knows that it probably won't take long before her first origin is empty.
And she was right, not even ten minutes later she feels that the Gate would close any moment because there is not enough magic left, "Second Origin: Release! Open Gate of the Fire Bird, Phoenix! Hey Nix, we are currently emptying both of my magic containers and I want to ask if it would be alright with you to demonstrate some of your Fire Magic. First that would help to speed up the process but second and more important, I would love to see what you can do with fire!", she grins at him, looking closely you can detect the exhaustion in her voice aside from her eagerness to see the magic of her Spirit.
"Hello, Princess. I have nothing against your wish.", the Fire Bird answers.
Seconds later his whole body is on fire, adding even more to his beauty.
From her place just a few feet away from him she can feel the heat radiating off of him. Nix steps back from her and increases the fire around him, making is hotter and hotter. Then he turns around and opens his mouth, out comes a current of fire. The fire heads across the stream and the clearing on the other side before disappearing, luckily not destroying anything in its path.
Again ten minutes she can feels her magic reaching a point where she won't be able to continue this for much longer.
"Hey Nix, I need to send you back. I have reached my limit with three Spirits for the Night. And thank you very much for your demonstration. I must say that was really impressive for just a little Fire Magic. If I am correct you can set your whole body on fire and then control the heat of it, furthermore you can do something akin to the Roar Dragon Slayers can attack with. Or am I wrong with this?"
"You are right Princess. I wish you a goodnight.", and with that the Spirit was gone, Lucy not being able to hold his Gate open any longer.
Loke and Capricorn follow soon after Nix, both with very proud smiles on their faces.
To exhausted to do much more, Lucy trots to the tent, grabs her back and washes herself in the stream rather slowly. Slowly because she isn't able to move quick at all.
After her bath Cer comes over to help her to their tent, where they lay down to sleep.
"I guess I have to wait till tomorrow for any news from...", Lucy mumbles but falls asleep before she can finish.