"Princess, we have arrived. Shall I look how your camp looks? Should I pack everything up so that you can leave? Or do you want to stay here a little longer? Punishment?", comes the onslaught of questions from Virgo the moment they arrive back on Tenrou.
"Uhh... I think I will stay here for one or two more days. I want to finally make contracts with my Diamond Keys, I should have enough magic for that now... So I would really appreciate it if you could look after our camp. Oh and please bring me my Com, I need to call Master. And of course no punishment.", Lucy decides. Virgo bows and tunnels to the camp.
In the meantime Cer decides to run one time around the whole island, wanting to look for anything suspicious or other people. People he smelled the moment they arrived.
"Princess, I have..." "Lucy, there was someone else here while we were gone! It can't be too long ago they left the island, a few days at the most. I can smell them all over the island, it were four people. We shou...", the next moment Cer lays chained and gagged on the floor, staring in complete shock at the Spirit, who only shows her normal stoic expression.
"Princess, there was something I wanted to tell before he interrupted me so rudely. I found an old camp near yours and someone looked at your things but didn't do anything to them. To me it seams as if someone only wanted to know who these things belonged to, from the looks I assume it were some of your Guild mates. But you should still confirm this with your Master, here is your requested Com. Do I need punishment for interrupting the Hellhound and chaining him up? Or for making assumptions?", asks Virgo with somewhat sparkling eyes, making it seem like she only took these measures to get punished.
Lucy who still stares in shock at her friend needs a few minutes to answer her Spirit and take the Com she holds out for her to take, "Uhm, no punishment for you, he did interrupt you after all. But please release him and then I will call Master to ask if someone was here while we were in the Celestial World."
"Then I will do as you asked, Princess.", and with these words Virgo takes Cer with her to the camp to release him, knowing that Lucy still wants to surprise her Guild with Cer in the future.
"Lucy, my child! Good to hear from you again, it's been such a long time! You were gone for four month!", the Master looks at her pouting.
"Yes, I'm back.", she smiles at Master a little touched that he is so overjoyed, "Say Master, were there other on Tenrou while I wasn't here? I just got back but Virgo found another camp near mine and that means who ever was here must know that I was here too."
"Laxus and his Team requested to train on Tenrou before restarting with missions again after their recovery. But don't worry, I didn't tell them that you might be there, since I didn't know if you come back while they are there or not. And of course I didn't tell them anything about you being in the Spirit World. In fact you missed them by one day, they left yesterday morning and arrived back at the Guild in the evening.", he tells her.
"Well, it seems like luck was on my side, it would have been hard to explain them from where I suddenly came.", at this Master can only laugh thinking that there is another reason for her to be happy that she didn't meet his grandson.
"Luck, indeed. I warn you, Laxus was really furious because of the chains and promised to take some revenge on you. What kind of I don't know, and I'm sure that he will do nothing to harm you, especially since it seems like he has calmed down. But I still wanted to warn you..." "Ohh... the chains... I totally forgot about that... hehe... Lucky me! Well, anyway, you are right, I too don't believe that he would do something to harm me. Oh man, I would have loved to see him chained up with nothing he can do against it!", Lucy smirks at her last thought.
"I did, enjoy seeing him like this. And it really helped him to recover faster, so thanks again for that my child. Anyway, something else we need to speak about, what do you plan to do next? And do you still want me to erase your Guild mark when you leave Tenrou?", Master looks at her sadly now, not wanting to take away her mark, even though it would only be temporary.
"I plan on staying a few more days, there are a few things I want to do before I leave. And yes I still want you to erase it, you know that it will only be temporary, it's just that already now I want a different color and place but I'm sure that this will change again on my travels. When I come back to the Guild I want it to be a fresh start. And even without the mark, Fairy Tail will still be my family!", she answers him. "Very well, if that is what you wish I will do as you ask when you leave Tenrou, just call me when you are ready. And know that you can always ask for help even when you don't have your mark.", he smiles gently at her, knowing that sometimes you just have to let a Fairy fly freely.
They exchange a few more words about what happened while she was away and then end the call.
Normally Lucy would have probably immediately made the contracts with her Diamond Keys and she desperately wants to do just that but decides against him, thinking that for the start she should check how much magic she has at the moment. She remembers clearly that Aquarius explained her that her containers will grow quite a bit, with her using so much magic in the Spirit World and now she really wants ti know just how much they did grow. And the easiest way for her to find out is to mediate, so she just does that.
Lucy searches the island for a quite place after telling Cer what she is planning, and sits down calmly. A quick talk with Capricorn through their new bond tells her that she can do this alone as to not waste magic to call him, so she really sees how much magic she has. But Capricorn promises her to look after her through their bond and warn her if he thinks she does something wrong or too long.
She settles down and reaches within herself for her magic. The moment she can feel her magic, she feels her large power up. Another thing she can feel is the magic coming from her new tattoos and her new and stronger bond with her Spirits. Concentrating back on her magic power she begins to steadily release her magic, adding more and more magic to the flow.
The golden glow around her becomes so bright that anyone who would have been there would have to close their eyes. And the pressure around her gets higher and higher. The air is whipping around her and small things are being lifted from the ground around her.
She still adds more magic and then starts to slowly lift from the ground herself, higher and higher until she is at least three feet over the ground. Having reached this high she stops and levitates in this place.
Magic pours out of her, more things around her begin to float, only to be whipped away by the wind around her, none reaching her.
"Miss Lucy, I advise you to release your magic around you in a bigger radius. Right now you are concentrating a lot of magic around you and if you would any more it could lead to cracks in the ground. When you send your magic farther away from you, the pressure directly around you will decrease and the golden glow will become less bright but reach farther away. This is similar to the kind of meditation you will use when searching for other Keys, the only difference then is that you will only send a small steady stream of your magic, so that there won't be a glow or detectable magic pressure, and your senses along with your magic. Oh and Miss Lucy, soon you will reach your second origin, to truly know how strong you are at the moment you should open it and use during your meditation.", Capricorn stops her before she releases anymore of her magic.
Hearing his advise Lucy stops to release more magic and reaches out her senses to feel for her magic around her, wanting to know how far her magic around her reaches. Next she does exactly as Capricorn told her to do, she sends her magic farther away from her and her senses along with the new released magic, wanting to know how far she can send her magic.
Now with the magic not being concentrated directly around her the wind gets slower and she levitates closer to the ground, but still remains floating.
This is a completely new experience for her. She can feel and somehow see everything around her; the earth, the flowers and trees, the animals, even the air moving around her. And the most beautiful is the magic, the magic is everywhere around. Concentrated on different places, showing her that every being around her has some magic within.
All this is so overbearing that she almost misses the moment where she had to open her second origin. She feels the moment it is open, feeling how magic fills her once again and she sends her magic even farther away.
Time goes by and Lucy completely relishes in this new experience, feeling pure bliss.
That is until she feels a sudden pull on her magic, a little started she almost loses her control on her magic. After taking a few deep breaths to regain her control, Lucy searches for this pull again. It was somewhat familiar.
Following this pull with her senses she detects a place where more magic is concentrated. She directs her senses and magic to this place, wanting to find out what pulled her magic, the feeling is just so familiar. But she can't place from where she recognizes it. The magic coming from this place feels like the nature around her and like something other, and this other thing she can't identify.
"Miss Lucy, this feels like a Celestial Key. The other magic, beside the nature-feeling, is Celestial Magic. That is why you have a feeling to know this. And from the feeling I get, it seems to be another Diamond Key. You do not have a lot of magic left. You should memorize where exactly this place is, so that you can search the Key later. Sometimes it is hard to remember those things, after stopping your meditation because you are so exhausted. Especially now that you have released more magic than ever, with your second origin on top."
On more time Lucy reaches out with her senses to find the Key and memorize the place before she slowly starts to pull her magic back inside of her.
First she fills her second origin, filling it and then pulling in some more magic to expand it, before closing this container. Next she pulls the rest of her magic back inside of her first origin, again pulling more magic inside of her than she released to expand this one too.
Filled with magic, Lucy falls back and just rests for a moment before she opens her eyes again.
Upon opening her eyes she notices how far the sun has moved while she was meditating. They arrived at some point in the morning and now it has to be noon or even later, meaning that she was meditating for roughly an hour and a half.
"To be exact, you meditated for one hour, thirty-seven minutes and twenty-five seconds, Miss Lucy." "Oh Horologium, thanks for that information!"
I really need to get accustomed to them suddenly speaking with me through our new bond. This is a little frightening at the moment, but it still love it!
Before Lucy can think further about this she feels something wet on her face, apparently she had closed her eyes again. Another wet feeling later she jolts up and opens her eyes wide, looking around her frantically.
The next moment she hears laughter. Beside her is Cer in his puppy form, that's why she didn't see him the moment she opened her eyes, laughing pretty hard.
She grabs his nape and holds him up in front of her face, glaring at the still laughing little puppy. Feeling her glare, the laughter slowly dies down and changes to big puppy eyes, looking pleadingly up at her.
"You little... you know exactly what this does to me!", and the next moment she practically cuddles him to death.
"Princess, I left lunch at your camp. Punishment for doing this on my own accord?" "Thanks you Virgo, and as always no punishment."
Again Lucy feels Cer licking her face. "Oi, why do you do that?" "Well, you were spacing out..." "Oh.. yeah, that's my Spirits talking with me through our new bond, I need to get accustomed to this. Virgo just told me that she left us lunch at out camp. Should we go eat?"
The puppy in her arms begins to wag it's tail at the mention of food, so Lucy stands up, still with him in her arms, and walks back to their camp.
They eat in content silent and after that go to the ocean, wanting to play a little in the water.
"So tomorrow you will make your contracts with the Diamond Keys and the day after that we will leave?", Cer asks now that they lay on the beach, relaxing in the sand. "Yes, that is my plan, hopefully I have enough magic to make both contracts tomorrow. While meditating I could feel how much my containers grew, but still, it takes a lot magic to open their Gates. It could be that I need to make on in the morning and then wait for the second to make the other.", she answers him.
"Oh I think you will definitely be able to make both contracts tomorrow, I could feel your magic earlier and I can only say that I never before had a friend with this much magic. It is amazing how much your magic grew in the Spirit World!" "Wait! I really forgot! Cer, there is a Diamond Key here on Tenrou! I found the Key during my meditation! So after finding the actual Key, I have three Keys to make a contract with!", Lucy suddenly shouts out, not thinking that she would really forget something this important.
"Really? That's amazing! Let's search for the Key now! How about you ride on my back? I wanted to try this with you the whole time and I know how exhausted you are!", Cer suggests. At this Lucy's eyes begin to sparkle, "Yeah, let's do that! I want to know how riding on your back feels and your are right, I really am pretty exhausted..."
They go back to camp, so that Lucy can change her clothes and leave their towels their.
"Wow! This was amazing! Cer, you are so fast! How can you see anything clearly while running this fast?! And you are probably faster with out me and somewhere where you can run without and hindrances! Just wow!", Lucy says in awe, never before has she been this fast.
Cer can only chuckle at her behavior, Lucy being still on his back can feel the vibrations from this chuckle. "Well, yes, I can run faster than this but at some point it really becomes hard to see clearly. So I only run faster when there is the need to or I know the path pretty well. Soo... This should be the place where your new Diamond Key should be, maybe we should start looking. It's getting darker after all. And this being a cave doesn't make it lighter at all."
That is the moment, Lucy realizes that she is still on his back, she flushes a little, it feels just too good, and then slides down his back. "Yes, it should be somewhere around here, lets starts with our search, and thanks again that you are helping me!", she smiles brightly at him, now completely focused on finding the Key, full of anticipation to finally have this Key in her hands.
They split up to cover more ground, knowing that they Key has to be close but that they cave has a lot of space to hide something, especially something as small as a Celestial Key.
"Lucy, I think I found something! You have to look at this!", comes the astonished and somewhat breathless call from Cer. Lucy follows his voice and reaches a small crack in the wall. Coming to the conclusion that Cer must be calling from somewhere inside of this crack she decides to try out if she fits through this crack. It's very tight and at some point she almost stuck, but she barely made it through.
"Cer, what is it tha...", Lucy trails of upon seeing what lays behind this small crack.
"Wow! A little paradise!", Lucy breathes out, eyes wide open, staring and the beautiful and and tranquil scene before her.
There inside the cave is another hidden small cave. And this one if green, flowers and gras spreading over the ground and walls, a little clear pond on one side and in the middle the most beautiful and biggest flower she had ever seen.
As not to disturb this scene Lucy slowly walks around this cave, looking at everything carefully, relishing in the feeling this cave gives of. And now inside the cave she can feel the Key again. After admiring everything around her she begins to search for the Key. As she could have thought the Key is by the beautiful flower in the middle, laying on one big blossom.
She admires the beauty of this Key, just like the others it's made of diamond with flower tendrils and little blossoms inside.
Before Lucy can reach out to touch and take the Key, the magic pressure around them rises, and a blossoms starts to suddenly grow bigger and bigger until it pops open and before them stands a beautiful women.
She wears a white flowing summer dress with lace. Her feet are bare, except from a flower tendril, with little blossoms, that winds around both her legs, as well as around her arms. She has brown hair with flowers in different colors woven in, her eyes are the deepest green Lucy has ever seen. She has a gently smile on her full lips but you can see that she won't hesitate to attack from the look in her eyes.
"Who are you? And what do you plan to do with my Key?!", she demands to know, but not in an unkind voice.
"My name is Lucy Heartfilia and this is my friend Cerberus. I am searching for the Diamond Keys. I already have to other Diamond Keys but weren't able to make a contract until now. I just recently returned from the Celestial World where this King told me to search for the rest of your Keys, because I am able to open your Gates. So I really hope you would allow me to take your Key, make a contract with me and become part of my family.", Lucy greets and then explains her purpose with a happy smile. Cer beside her only nods, to enraptured with the beauty of this women, even though he has to admit that Luna is prettier in his eyes.
"My name is Kaede and I am the Fairy of Earth, with the specialty in nature or to be more accurate Plant Magic. And from what I can feel from you and from what my plants are telling me, I will allow you to hold my Key and make a contract with you. Be warned that I hate people who do something to nature and that I would fight against you if you harm nature without any reason! Apart from that I am ready to make a contract with you. Oh and if you wonder why I look like this, this is my human form, in my Fairy form you wouldn't be able to see me.", the Fairy warns her but agrees to making a contract with her, after all the plants told her about this girl already and she must they that she has a good feeling with this mage.
"Really? That would be so great! And don't worry, I too dislike people who harm nature. And good to know with your human and Fairy form. Can I call you in your Fairy form? And how is it even possible for you to appear here? I mean I didn't open your Gate and the other Fairies didn't do that...", she asks curiously.
"Yes, you can call me, or all of us for that matter, in our Fairy form. That way nobody would be able to see us and only you can hear us, that is good during fights for example. And well, that is because of this place here. This island has more magic and is full of nature, giving me enough strange to open my own Gate for a little while, even without being contracted to someone. So lets do the contract now.", she says while taking her Key from the blossom and stepping closer to Lucy, holding the Key out for her to take.
"Sadly the contract has to wait, at the moment I don't have enough magic to reopen your Gate, because I meditated this morning and am now to exhausted. I plan on making the other two contracts tomorrow, so I would call you again tomorrow.", Lucy explains sorrowful, wanting noting more than to make the contract at the moment but she is just too exhausted.
"Oh don't worry about this, there is no need for you to reopen my Gate. Our contracts are a little different from normal Golden or Silver Keys. For one, you can call us whenever you want and need us and then the way we seal our contracts, or like we call it bond, is different. You only have to hold my Key and then we seal the bond with a Kiss." "A Kiss?" "Yes, a Kiss, a real Kiss on the lips. I know this can be shocking but we Fairy are really open with our affections and contracts or bonds are something very personal and we need to trust the person we make a bond with. And to show this trust we Kiss. It doesn't have to be a long Kiss, but only touching the lips isn't enough.", Kaede explains to her, coming even closer to Lucy.
And before Lucy can react, the Fairy already presses her lips to Lucy's in a gently kiss. At first Lucy freezes up in shock but when she feels the gently hand on her left cheek she shyly responds. She gingerly moves her own lips against the others while placing her left and over Kaede's on her cheek. The kiss merely lasts a few seconds, but is so sweet in itself that it feels much longer. And the moment they part lips again Lucy can feel the bond to her new Spirit taking place.
Cer who only just awakened from his shock over the beauty of the Fairy falls in another shock. Eyes wide open and mouth agape, he stares at Lucy and Kaede as they Kiss. The kiss just looks so sensual but at the same time has nothing sexual about it that Cer absolutely doesn't know what to think. To him too, it seems if if the two were kissing for a long time, when their lips part again, both are a little flushed and are looking deep into each others eyes.
Looking into Kaede's eyes, Lucy sees the trust the Spirit has for her and tries to express her own trust and love for her Spirits with her own eyes. The moment between them lasts until Cer comes back to his senses and coughs a little awkwardly, having the feeling that he just witnessed something so personal that no one else should be allowed to see it. But he clearly sees the beauty in this moment, two beings Kiss to form a bond between them, a bond of deep trust and friendship. A bond that will last for as long as they both live.
So, so sorry that this once again took me so long! I wanted to have this posted such a long time ago... But sadly my arm got hurt and so I couldn't bend it without it hurting, leading to me not being able to write on my Laptop or Tablet and I hate to write on my phone because I'm so slow...
But now my arm is a little better and I finally was able to finish this story on my Tablet.
I hope you like this Chapter and are not too sad that they missed each other, but I promise I have the perfect meeting for them in my mind (I have this scene in my mind since I started writing this story and can't wait to finally reach this part!) and it should only be one or two more Chapter before they finally see each other in a hopeful epic meeting.
And for the Guest who asked and everyone else who wants to know: No I don't plan on her getting Star Dress. I just thought that with new Spirits, Water Magic, Spells and the Dagger she would become too powerful if she had the Star Dress too.
Please tell me what you think, I always love to read your reviews! :)