Hi everyone, sorry for taking so long to update, but I have been busy with school and I don't have very much time to type as much as I would.
Ring. Ring.
'What the heck is that,' thought Lucy as she snuggled deeper into the covers.
Ring. Ring.
'I'm probably imagining it,' Lucy continued thinking.
Natsu on the other hand was not able to brush it off with his extra sensitive hearing. "H-hello," he groggily answered with half of his body still on the bed.
"Good morning, sir! This is your morning wake up call. Good luck finding that monster," said the morning concierge.
"Okay. Thank you. Good bye," Natsu said before hanging up. With a sigh, Natsu heaved himself out of bed tossing the covers to the side. "Happy," Natsu gently shook the sleeping cat, "Happy, wake up."
"No waiter, I couldn't possibly eat that much fish."
Natsu chuckled, "Still dreaming, I see. Happy," he called one more time.
"Huh, Natsu? Why are we up so early? The sun isn't up yet," Happy observed. It was still dark out, there were even a few stars still lingering in the sky.
"Because we have to get ready for a morning of monster hunting," Natsu answered. "Right, Lucy?" No response, "Lucy?"
There was Lucy, still in bed snoozing away. She looked so peaceful… not for long.
"Luce," Natsu said in a very mischievous tone as he crept over to her bed. "Time to wake up," Natsu sang.
Lucy only turned to her side, still asleep while groaning.
"Wake up," Natsu shook Lucy's shoulder. Lucy only stirred a little bit. "Come on, Lucy, it's time to get up," Natsu said a little louder. Wait, should this not be the other way around?
"No..." Lucy whined as she pulled the covers over her head, "Too early."
Natsu sighed in frustration, he was not used to being on this end of the morning wake up calls. "Guess you left me no choice then," Natsu grabbed the end of the covers and pulled them off in one quick motion. "Ready to get up now?"
"Good morning to you, too," Lucy said sarcastically as she pushed herself off the bed. "I don't wanna get up," Lucy complained as she opened her bag to gather her clothes for the day.
"Don't be like that," Natsu tried encourage. "Try taking a quick shower or something, that might wake you up," he suggested as he pulled out his own day clothes from his bag.
"That sounds like a good idea. Be back." Lucy closed the bathroom door behind her.
After Lucy left, Natsu started talking to Happy, "I hope we find this monster fast. I don't want to wake up this early for too long."
"That and," Happy laughed before continuing, "you don't want to miss your date with Lucy." Happy had the most mischievous look on his face when he said that.
Natsu was a little lost for words, "H-How did you know about that," he questioned. Natsu had not told anyone about his plan because it just sort of happened and Happy was in the dining cart when he asked.
"I was going to come back earlier, but I heard you ask before I opened the door. Then I heard Lucy's answer," Happy giggled before continuing. "So I thought the two of you would like some alone time."
Natsu blushed at the statement because, well, Happy was kind of right about that. He and Lucy did end up cuddling, even if it was unintentional. Though Natsu decided to deny it and changed the subject, "We should get ready, we don't know how long it's going to take to find this monster." He started grabbing a fresh set of clothes from his bag and started to change into them.
"Aye!" Happy started tying on his bag around his neck.
Back in the restroom, Lucy turned off the water for the shower. She was not kidding when she said that she was taking a quick shower, all she did was let the cool water pour over her until she was wide awake. "Better get dressed…"
"Lucy," Natsu whined, "we've been looking for half an hour! How long is it going to take to find this damn thing?"
"I don't know, Natsu. Though I wish that the mayor had given us a better description of it when we were asking for information." Lucy looked around the surrounding area. "Of only there was some sort of way to track it. The mayor said that trained dogs couldn't find its scent."
Natsu scoffed, "Those were dogs, Lucy. I'm sure when we find it I can track it. Never doubt a dragon's nose."
"Aye! If Natsu can't smell that monster, I doubt anyone can," claimed Happy.
"Happy, do you think that you could fly up to see if you can spot the monster anywhere," asked Lucy.
"Aye sir!"
Before Happy could get even about the forest, an abrupt roar came from behind them and came charging.
"Lucy! Look out," yelled Natsu as he pushed Lucy out of the monster's path. "Are you okay?"
"I think so, but we need to keep that monster from getting to the town!"
"Got it! I'm all fired up! Roar of the Fire Dragon!"
Natsu's flames charged towards the monster,however the monster was completely unfazed and continued onwards to the town. "What the hell?"
"This isn't good! Open, gate of the Maiden: Virgo!"
"Punishment time, Princess?"
"No! Virgo can you make a trench to stop that monster?" Lucy pointed towards the direction that the monster was heading.
"As you wish," Virgo then disappeared as she dug her way underground.
A sound of a large thud followed by the monster's roar indicated that it fell for the trap made by Virgo.
"Let's go, Happy," called Natsu.
"Aye sir," Happy said as he picked up Natsu to fly him over to where the monster had landed.
The monster struggled to get out of the trench. It tried to scale the wall of it but had no avail as it slipped back down to the ground. Its body was covered in strange markings that did not seem to resemble any other animal or monster in Fiore.
Lucy came up from behind Natsu and Happy, out of breath. "What is that?"
"I dunno, Luce, I've never seen anything like it before."
"Virgo, do you know anything about this monster," asked Lucy.
"I am sorry, Princess, I do not. Should I receive punishment?"
"No, you can go home now, Virgo. Thank you for your help."
"Anyways, all we gotta do is defeat it right? Let's get this over with. Iron fist of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu's right fist was ablaze as he jumped into the trench to attack the monster that was at the bottom of it. But he did not even make contact with the monster, for it had vanished into thin air before Natsu was even at the bottom. "What the-" instead of the monster, Natsu's attack collided with the ground, sending several rock flying towards the town. "Oops."
After the rocks had landed, Natsu could have sworn he heard a cry of "My lobby!" from the general direction from the hotel he and Lucy were staying at for the time being. There were two gaping holes in the hotel that Natsu could see.
"Do you think they'll believe that the monster did that…" Natsu asked.
"Maybe. Say, Natsu, can you smell the monster anywhere," Lucy asked from the top of the trench.
That is when it struck Natsu, he could not smell the monster at all when it had appeared. It made no sense. It had clearly been there before it had disappeared and something that huge should have given off some sort of scent.
"No… I couldn't smell anything…" Natsu said in shame. Had his magic abilities been outdone by some random monster?
"What?" Lucy said in shock. Though she decided not to press on the matter too much could she could see how much Natsu was taking the news in himself. "Anyways, can you come up here? We need to rethink our tactics."
"Yeah… Happy, a little help?"
"That monster was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I just wish we had more information on it… Oh, I know," Lucy exclaimed as she got an idea. Lucy pulled out one of her silver keys, "Open, gate of the Southern Cross: Crumudgeon!"
The elderly celestial spirit then appeared, snoozing away.
"Grandpa Crux, do you think you can look up something for us? I have the feeling that the monster we were fighting isn't actually a monster."
"Hmm, okay, Miss. Lucy, please tell me about this monster you fought," Crux requested.
Lucy then gave a detailed description of the monster they had fought. Then patiently waited for Crux to search through any information that matched the description.
"Miss. Lucy, you were right, that was not an ordinary monster that you had fought," Crux began. "In fact, it was not even a monster, it was a spirit. Well, not a spirit like me…" Crux started falling back asleep.
"Oi, wake up," Natsu yelled.
"Huh, oh sorry. That spirit is actually bound to the land here. Earth dwelling spirits normally don't attack humans unless they have been tampering with their homes in someway. The only way for you to resolve this issue with the spirit is to find out what they town there has been doing to upset it. That is all that I can say. Excuse me Miss. Lucy," then Crux returned to the celestial spirit world.
"So the only way to solve this issue would to be talking to the mayor again," Lucy thought out loud.
"Yeah," Natsu's pride hurt a little less knowing that physical attacks of any kind had no effect on the monster at all. "Let's get going."
The team was once again at the doors of the mayor's house and were knocking on the door. The same servant as before answered the door, "Can I help you?"
"Yes, please, we would like to ask the mayor a few more questions about what has been attack this town, we think it'll help the mission," Lucy explained.
"Okay, miss," the servant said, "I'll see if he has the time to answer your questions," they said before walking out of the room.
They mayor walked into the mainroom to meet with the team. "Hello again, what can I do for you?"
"Have this town been doing anything that would piss off a spirit," Natsu asked going straight to the point.
The mayor's eyes widen with shock, "You're not suggesting the reason my humble town is being attacked is my fault are you?!"
"No, of course he's not suggesting that," Lucy said with her hands up trying to calm down the mayor, "Right, Natsu?" Natsu only huffed. "What he meant to ask was your town doing anything out of the ordinary when these attacks started?"
"Well, I suppose," the mayor glared at Natsu, "it started when we added stationery to our list of trading goods two month ago."
"Huh, I don't get it. What do unmoving things have to with a spirit," questioned Natsu.
"Not stationary, Natsu, stationery. Or in other words: paper." Lucy turned her attention back towards the mayor, "Where did you get the materials to make the paper."
"From the forest obviously, there are so many trees that it was a waste not to use our resources. We would cut down the trees early in the morning."
Lucy had to resist the urge to slap someone. A spirit that had never attacked the town until recently. It comes from the forest. The forest is the same place where they get the materials to make paper. How did no one make this connection? "I think the solution to your problem is to stop cutting down trees to make paper."
"But why? It has such a high demand that it makes such a profit."
Lucy sighed and composed herself. "Is this one product's marginal profit really worth the costs to practically shut down your entire town," asked Lucy, the studying from her former life shined through at the moment.
"Well… I suppose not. But the monster-"
"Stop calling it that," Lucy said annoyed. "It is not a monster, it is a spirit just trying to protect its home." Even though it was not one of her celestial spirits, or a celestial spirit at all, Lucy knew that all spirits were like people on the inside. "How would you like it if someone started tearing apart pieces of your home?"
"Well, I, uh…"
"You wouldn't! You would hire some guards to defend your home, wouldn't you?" Lucy stated. Natsu was holding her back from doing anything crazy.
"Okay, okay Miss! I understand your point," the mayor cried. "I'll order the production of stationery to stop! Just please, stop yelling!"
Lucy started calming down from her little rant, Natsu decided to loosen his grip. "Okay, thank you."
"Though I do have one more question," the mayor chirped.
"What," Lucy said a little more darkly than she intended.
"How will the mon-" Lucy glared at the mayor, "I mean the spirit know that we are no longer cutting down trees?"
"Are you stupid," Natsu asked, "Just start planting trees to replace the ones you cut down."
"Yes… Start replacing the trees…" the mayor agreed, afraid of Natsu going off next. "If you would excuse me, I need to make some calls on the matter. I'll give your hotel a call when everything has been arranged." The mayor ran back into his office.
All three of them left the mayor's house and started walking back to the hotel.
It was a silent walk for most of the way until Happy broke the silence, "Lucy was really scary back there."
"I was not…"
"Yeah you were," Natsu said agreeing with Happy, "you were kinda on fire back there."
Lucy was not sure if that was some sort of compliment coming from Natsu or what. She just wanted to go back to the hotel and take a nap, they did not get much sleep the other night. "Let's just go back to the hotel."
When they got there, they did not go through the doors because they were gone. In the middle of the lobby was a large rock that was the result of Natsu's attack. "Oh you two must be the mages that checked in last night," a man said from behind the counter. "I am disappointed to tell you that your previous room had been damaged by this morning's attack. But do not worry, none of your belongs were destroyed. We have moved them to a new room, let me show you where it is," the hotel manager explained. "Right this way."
Natsu, Happy and Lucy were lead to their new room. The manager handed them their new keys to the room in exchange for the old ones. "I hope this room is to your liking."
"Thanks Mr. Moby," said Natsu, reading the manager's name tag incorrectly.
"It's Mr. Mos-" the hotel manager was cut off since Natsu closed the door.
"Natsu! That's rude! I am so sorry," Lucy called out of the door. She sighed knowing that she most likely was not heard. Lucy looked around the new room and saw that their bags had been placed in the closet. It was for the most part the same as their previous room. Lucy threw herself onto the closest bed, it was larger than the other one. She was almost asleep until the bed became suddenly warmer. "N-Natsu what are you doing here?"
"Huh, what are you talking about, Luce? Where else am I supposed to sleep," questioned Natsu.
Lucy's head then popped off from the pillow and looked around the room again. She then realized that there was only one bed in the room.
Thanks for reading this chapter! I try to post a new one as soon as I can. I promise it won't be three years later.
