Chapter 10

The small group of four made their way through the late-night traffic. Wendy was holding Charla against her chest and talking to Azel. Lucy was listening absentmindedly as her eyes wondered over the various shops and restaurants, where a few couples were sitting in the candle light. It looked romantic but Lucy barely noticed.

The delicious smell of the food made her even hungrier than she was. She was starving. She hadn't eaten the whole day except for the light breakfast they had. She opened her mouth but then closed it again quickly, biting down on her lip. Her friends ate just as little as she did, yet they weren't complaining.

Since the café she hadn't thought of Fairy Tail again.

She swallowed and banned them from her thoughts…again.

"Are you hungry, Lucy?" Wendy repeated her question. Her eyes searching for the tears she smelled on Lucy's face. "Hell, yeah!" She replied, smiling happily. She was aware of Wendy's eyes on her and unknowingly the mask returned.

"Why don't we order take-aways then?" Charla suggested and three nods of approval confirmed it.

"I don't know about you Lucy but I am too tired to cook food tonight." Wendy said with a smile, as she remembered the things they had to do.

"I don't think I have ever work so hard before in my life." Azel seconded, nodding his head vigorously.

Lucy laugh sounded above the noise.

"And here I thought I was the complaining one." She said jokingly at them and Lucy could see the sudden red shade on Wendy's face.

They stopped in front of a small restaurant that wasn't so crowded and Lucy quickly ordered. Ten minutes later they entered the motel where they were staying, with a steaming box of pizza. Their room was on the fifth floor.

After climbing 5 staircases, they arrived at their room. The room was cleaner than they left it. The beds were made and the garbage had been removed. Lucy, Wendy and Azel sat in a circle on the carpet and dug into the pizza.

With a satisfied sigh, Azel leaned back on his hands. His hazel eyes looked around at the circle. Lucy was sitting in the same position he was and Charla was sitting on Wendy's lap. He had realized a long time ago that Wendy and Charla were inseparable.

"I am too full to go to bed!" Lucy groaned before falling onto her back.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to eat again." Lucy complained holding her stomach. "That pizza was bigger than three normal pizzas combined." Wendy commented. Her gazed fixed on the empty pizza box.

"Who wants to play a game?" Lucy, after a few minutes of silence, asked sitting up. Charla frowned disapprovingly.

"Seriously, Lucy. We need to go to bed. Tomorrow we have to go to Inhonto and our train leaves first thing tomorrow."

"Charla, we won't be able to sleep now anyway. Maybe if we play a game we'll get tired sooner." Wendy plead.

"pleeeeaaaaasssseee." Lucy was begging now too. Azel hesitated for a second before he too started begging.

Charla was forced to let them be but with one last warning that they better not stay up too late, she went to the bathroom to take a bath.

"YYYEEEEESSSS!" Lucy exclaimed, jumping to her feet and fist pumping the air. The others laughed at her silliness.

In one of the train's compartments, a boy with ice blue hair suddenly lifted his nose in the air and sniffed.

"Do you smell him?" one of his companions asked, a tint of disbelieve in her voice. The boy however ignores her question. His head spun around, just to see the lights of a town.

"He is in that town." He said as he turned back to look at his two companions.

"Then we are going the wrong way!" she said worried. The guy sitting next to her stood up. His hands in his pockets, he made his way to the window.

"Then let's go."

"yes" the purpled hair girl jumped up just as a purplish portal appeared dead center of the compartment.

"Age before beauty." She said, bowing mockingly for the two guys to enter first. The guy growled and his eyes flashed warningly which she ignored before he stepped through. The blue haired guy was next. He quickly jumped through just before she jumped through—the portal closing behind her.

Zack stepped out of the portal and into the main street of the town. He ignored the weird / curious stares from passersby. Ren jumped through and Vivian. The portal then closed leaving them in the middle of the town square.

"Your turn, Ice head!" Vivian said and patted his back. Or it was meant to be a pat but it came out too hard and ren almost fell. He spun around, ready to attack. Vivian lifted her hands in fake innocence with a "oops!" ren however started sniffing the air before he darted through an alleyway.

The other two following him. After a few turns, they saw a motel dooming in front of them and Ren was heading straight for it. He threw open the doors and it took him just a second to re-obtain the scent. When he found it, he sped off for the stairs and five staircases later he stopped.

Ren sudden stop caused his two comrades to collide into him and together they fell to the ground. "CAN'T YOU WATCH WHERE YA GOING!" Ren yelled from beneath the other two.

"THEN DON'T STOP WITHOUT WARNING! IDIOT!" Vivian yelled back.

"Shut it you two." Zack sounded irritated but it didn't register to the two as they turned to yell on him.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHHH!"

Their heads shot up to look at where the scream had come from. They knew that scream or at least the person to whom it belonged… Azel.

Like one they shot up and sped to the door.

Lucy's, Wendy's and Charla's head shot up alarmed when the door suddenly burst open. Lucy's hand grabbed her keys.

The one guys face was full anger, the other one seemed hard and the girl's face was alive with excitement.

"Where is he?!" the guy in the front demanded through gritted teeth. It looked like he had a hard time to keep himself from attacking. Despite it, Lucy and Wendy couldn't help the dumbfounded look on their faces.

"Uhm, I think you ha..."

"Where is he?" This time the threat was clear in his voice. Lucy was beginning to lose it too. Who are they to barge into my room and threat us. If this leads to a fight, she won't care. She was just glad that Azel weren't in the room. He was in the bathroom, busy washing the blood of from his wound where he had cut himself. The kitchen knife was still on the floor with his blood on it.

And it was just this that started the fight.

Ren launched forward, his fist aiming at Lucy. Her eyes grew slightly bigger but then a slight smile appeared on one of her mouth corners.

It distracted Ren from his attack for one second. But that one second was all that Lucy needed. Ren felt something hit his abdomen hard and he crashed into the ceiling.

A man in a fancy black suit and tie stood in front of Lucy. His blue tinted glasses on his nose. His golden brown hair with the cat ears looked like that of a lion. He adjusted his glasses.

Vivian smile widened. Her hands glowed purple.

Azel stepped out of the bathroom and froze. He stared surprised at the scene in front of him. There were three strangers in the room but there was something familiar about them. The girl saw him first.

"Azel!" She cried out, confusion clear on her face. Her cry was heard by the other and they looked at him surprised.
"Wait...Wait a moment! You know him?!" Lucy pointed at him while she stared fixedly at the them.

"Yeah, who the hell did you think we were looking for?"

"You never said you were looking for Azel."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

Ren opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted.

"It doesn't matter. I don't understand something. Azel why didn't you come back?" Zack finally spoke. He was frowning at the small boy, who somehow seemed different from the Azel they knew.

Azel seemed to shrimp in away as everyone were looking at him. It wasn't his fault he couldn't remembered. But they didn't know that.

"I….I…"

"He doesn't remember anything." Charla saved him. From the questioning and suspicious looks on their faces, Lucy quickly explained. "He was with me on a train when it exploded. All I knew about him was his name and… and that his parents passed away."

"Oh." Was all they could say. "We were planning to go to Jofuka tomorrow to see if someone maybe knew him there."

"Ok, then why did we hear a scream and why is his blood on that knife?" Vivian asked. Lucy and Azel sheepishly laughed while rubbing the back of their heads.

"We were playing a game and the knife slipped out of my hand and it cut me. It wasn't very deep. I guess I screamed out of fright." Azel explained.

"What kind of game involves a razor-sharp knife?" Ren inquired, he sounded more curious than anything else. The purpled haired girl hit him over the head. "Duh! Many games involve knives!" Lucy, Wendy, Charla and Azel sweat dropped.

"How do you guys know me?"

"We are in the same guild. Our Master send us to find you when you didn't return from your mission. We were on our way to Magnolia when Ren here—" He pointed at the boy with ice-blue hair "– picked up your scent and we followed it here. We heard Azel scream and thought he was in danger." Zack clarified.

"Well, I think introductions are in order…" Charla declared, her white paws crossed over her chest. "I am Charla. This is Wendy—" she pointed at the blue haired girl who shyly waved and smiled. "—and this is Lucy and Loki." She pointed at Lucy and Loki. Loki was standing a bit in front of Lucy as if to protect her. He nodded his head in acknowledgment and she waved.

"Zack."

"Ren."

"Vivian and we are mages of Crimson Specter."
"Crimson Specter?" Lucy sounded doubtful. Her mind worked double to try to remember if she had heard of it before. It sounded familiar.

"Yeah, we aren't really that famous or well known." Zack started to explain as he closed the door. He was taller than Vivian and Ren. He had spiky brown hair and he was fairly tanned. His dark eyes seemed alive, as if he was fully aware of everything around him even though his eyes were pinned on Lucy. She was clearly the oldest in the group and was thus most likely in charge. Both the girls definitely had magic. Even the cat-like creature had magic. But are they mages? The questioned bothered him

"Are you part of a guild?" Ren asked excited, unknowingly asking the question that Zack wanted the answer for. Lucy quickly dropped her eyes to floor, trying to prevent them from seeing things in her eyes. Wendy felt the sharp stab of pain in her heart. She didn't regret leaving—it was the right to thing to do but it didn't change the fact that she missed them.

"I really don't see what it has to do with you." Charla said coolly. Her usual poker face present.

Ren gaped at the white cat that just talked. Shakely, he pointed his finger at the cat "Y-You j-just TALKED?!" He exclaimed in disbelieve. Vivian and Zack's looked shocked and surprised. It was the first time they had seen an exeed and never had a cat spoken to them.

A flash of irritation flashed across Charla's face. "Duh. Now close your mouth and stop pointing at me! It's extremely rude." Charla said irritatedably, crossing her arms.

Ren's arm immediately fell to his side and he quickly closed his mouth. But he didn't stop staring at Charla.

"Okay, well since everything is sorted out. We will be on our way with Azel." Vivian said as she turned to go. Azel, however quickly moved to stand behind Wendy and Lucy. "He isn't going with you." Lucy said bravely, although she was everything except brave at that moment.

"Look I get you took care of him and all but we're his family." She was getting irritated. She had just returned from an extremely hard mission when the Master had asked them to go look for Azel. She was tired and wanted to go to bed as soon as possible. "and he is coming with us now or…" Zack placed his hand on her shoulder to silence her. He gave her warning look. "Fine, then what do you propose?" He directed his question to Lucy, who seemed suddenly unsure about what to do. "We can all go to your guild tomorrow and if Azel wants to stay, he can stay and we'll go. But if he doesn't feel comfortable then he leaves with us." Lucy suggested hesitantly.

"Can we keep her?" Ren suddenly asked. He clearly didn't pay attention to the conversation. A vain popped on Charla's forehead.

"NO!" she yelled irritated. While Lucy was talking Ren had stared at her, openly and none stop. Zack gave a stern and disapproving look at Ren. "As you want." Zack agreed to Lucy's proposal. "I will go rent us a room." He turned on his heel and without a goodbye he led Vivian out. Ren followed disgruntled.

HI guys! Please note that there is a link on my profile with Scarlet Specter's guild mark.