Apologies to those who thought the last chapter was too dark! I'll try to be less...dark. Anyway! Hello again! Chapter twelve! Pretty much just a time passer, but useful! Enjoy!
Three months. They'd been looking for Lucy for three months. Laxus and Jet had yet to return with Natsu, and the search party for Lucy was losing hope. When they'd first began looking for her, they'd gone to the destroyed guild hall that Rogue and Sting had been to, but all they found there was a note. It had read,
"Dragon Slayers and your friends, please patiently await the finale. Connect the ends, and meet me in the Alley. A warning I give you, and three clues, too. Find the tree that stands tall, and look into the bark. Only at dark, on the cobbles, will the earth sing. Listen to the melody, hear the plea, proceed. Perhaps you get one more: in this town, you won't find her, but clues galore. Head my words. If you don't follow the clues, you will not find her. If you are not fast enough, the clues will be gone, as she will be no more."
The clue had thoroughly confused everyone, and Rogue had been so frustrated he vented his feelings out on the already ruined building. After that, Sting had taken him to the side, "Rogue, I know you're pissed. I am, too. Everyone here is. But we can't let our anger get the better of us- otherwise we won't find her fast enough. We need to clearly, calmly think this out." Rogue nodded, sighed, and let his anger seep out of him. Sitting in a semi-circle, the crew thought over the message left for them from Lucy's captors.
"'Meet me in the Alley,' so, this would imply a town. But then it goes on to talk about a tree...which would be a forest." Wendy said.
"Maybe it's a tree inside of a town." Gray stated simply. This got everyone to look at him. "What?" he demanded.
"That would be too easy to figure out, yet too hard to actually check. Especially since we don't know which town." Rufus chimed in.
"Damn it!" Erza mumbled. She was much better with straight forward stuff, like, 'go stop that guy,' not these riddles. It was Lucy who was good at these kinds of things.
"Maybe the tree's a metaphor." Sting said, after some thought. This too, had all the people looking at him.
"I'm surprised you know what that is," Gray said in disbelief.
"Hey hey. I'll let that slide for now, since we don't have that much time." Sting growled.
"I don't think-" Erza was cut off.
"Hey, yeah! If it was a metaphor, then maybe it's Cedar town!" Wendy cried out, "Carla and I were there a few days ago."
"No, because that's by the seaside. It has to be 'tall', remember? It's tall...or high, so maybe Oak Town? It's up in the mountains, which is 'tall'" Rogue stated.
"So then, would the 'bark' be like streets?" Rufus asked.
"Yeah, and that would fit with the 'Alley', too." Rogue finished. "Well, let's get going. We don't have any other ideas, and we should get there as soon as we can."
The group had traveled to Oak Town, and had searched it during the night. In one of the side alleys of the town, there'd been a soft glowing glyph on the ground, and when Erza had stepped on it, it sang out the next clue. As well as a recording of Lucy's screaming.
On and on they'd gone, for three months, following clues, figuring out clues. There was never an end to them. By now they'd gone over mountains, plains, and onward to the ocean; they were in the town of Hargeon. Tired, worn out, they were in a hotel room, sleeping for the first time in two days. Each day was marked by even more stress. Sometime around the fifth clue, they'd been told they were too slow, and that if they didn't hurry up, the clues would stop.
Rogue was beside himself. He'd been so sure that the last clue in would tell them where Lucy was... He lay awake, unable to sleep, worry and guilt keeping his itching eyes wide. He would find her. He had to. But would she be alright? Three months already... and the sound of Lucy's screams kept ringing in his ears.
By the end of twelve weeks, the search party had traveled about half of Fiore, following the clues given to them. At the train station, preparing to board the train, the group came across Laxus. He was hauling a pink haired, green faced man, and being tagged by Jet." Yo! We got Natsu!"
His smile faded when he saw the exhausted, wary faces of the others. "Still searching for her, huh?" he asked. Everyone nodded.
"W-who?" Natsu managed before clamping a hand over his mouth, repressing the urge to up chuck.
"Lucy," Gray said. Rogue's face darkened.
"What?!" Natsu roared. He rounded on Rogue, "Hey, you! What were you doing? Why is Lucy missing?!" He suddenly ducked, just barely missing the punch Sting threw.
"Shut up, stupid Fairy!" Sting yelled, "Rogue is not to blame here!"
"Then who is?" Natsu muttered. The group was silent. "What's happened while I was gone?"
"We'll talk on the train. We need to get going." Erza said. Every Dragon Slayer in the group, omitting Wendy, involuntarily grimaced.
This time, the clue only said,
"Well done. But I have tired of these games. Come to Crocus." So now the group was traveling by train to Crocus.
Natsu, Erza, Wendy, Gray, Laxus, Jet, Rufus, Sting, and Rogue. They reached the Flowering City in a day, and they found an inn in which to rest for the night. As was usual now, Rogue didn't sleep very much. He was only hours away from, hopefully, saving his beloved wife, Lucy.
The next day, they all woke early, and were surprised to find another glyph on the wall. When they touched it, it told them to go to the Grand Magic Games arena. Everyone prepared for battle.
Annnnnnnnnd, done! Sorry, this chapter's a little...I don't know, sloppy. At least, it feels sloppy. It took me a long time to wrote, too. Any suggestions or fillers, grammar errors- point them out to me! Other than that... What do you think? Almost four months since she's been gone; Natsu's back, the group's close to finding Lucy... A big battle next chapter? Chapter thirteen in progress...