Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait but at least it wasn't a year this time. Anyways here is a 'short' chapter. Yes I've already started the next chapter :) So I will find time between school and work to finish writing it. Gotta love finding ways to procrastinate from doing homework.
Enjoy.
Lucy POV
Mavis help me!
"Natsu we've been this way already. Can't you see our tracks in the dirt? You've been leading us in circles for hours. How are we supposed to find anything like this?" I screamed in frustration, sitting heavily on a tree trunk while I watched Natsu look around in confusion while sniffing loudly.
"Lucyyyy! I can't smell anything. I can't even smell us! I think you got us lost." He whined, sitting on the ground in front of me. I glared and stuck my tongue out at him as he smirked at me. "Seriously Lucy we've been here for hours don't you have any idea where we have to go? Are we even sure we're in the right place? What if there isn't a portal and it's just a normal forest?" He mused while pulling out food from his pockets to stuff his face.
Sighing I looked down at the map and then at our surroundings. My hypothesis was coming up empty, and I was afraid I'd been wrong about the whole thing. Maybe it was just wishful thinking after all. Looking around the dense forest I looked for any sign of where we should go next but couldn't tell the difference between any of the trees or the three trails we had already been down. Laying back on the rest of the tree trunk I gazed at the darkening sky. By the black clouds rolling in it was going to start raining soon, and we had basically lost all our light for the day so we'd either need to make camp here or back track to the last town we encountered to sleep in a normal bed. The latter option was my preference but Natsu shattered that as I watched him fluff his pack to use as a pillow.
"G'night Lucy." Natsu mumbles already half asleep on the ground with his scarf wrapped tightly around him. Guess we were staying here.
There was something strange about this forest, it had been windy and cloudy the entire time, yet I wasn't cold in my shorts and tank top. We also hadn't seen a single animal, nor have we heard them, and to top it off our lacrimas don't work. This was why I insisted we stay in the forest instead of giving up and going back to the estate, none of it was normal which brought me more hope that I had been right about the portal. But if we couldn't leave this clearing and the immediate surrounding area then we'd never find anything. Pushing myself up on my elbows I scraped my arm and felt something dig into my skin. Muttering a curse, I turned my head to pull it out when I saw a glint in the top of the trees. Forgetting about the splinter I squinted up at the trees and saw more flashes of light surrounded the clearing.
"Natsu. Natsu wake up!" I shouted as the light became so bright that I had to close my eyes. One moment I was sitting on the tree trunk and the next I was falling backwards into a pool of water. "What the-".
"Lucy!" I heard Natsu yell from a distance. Scrambling to sit up I looked around only to see him through a shimmering hole racing towards me. As the hole shrunk I watched him dive head first through it with his bag trailing behind him. He just barely made it through before the portal closed behind him, cutting the strap of his bag off with an audible sizzle as it was still passing through. "Holy shit Lucy! What'd you do?" He looked around wildly taking in our surroundings. "This doesn't look like the Spirit World Lucy... it's a lot darker."
"I noticed. According to records, the Black Forest was where the keys were initially made, and since there are no new keys being produced and with Celesital magic being so rare I don't think anyone has been here in a while. Look at those houses, they're breaking down." My eyes bounced from house to house, taking in the charred remains and the rusted exposed pipes. "I wonder what happened…" I muttered more to myself than Natsu. Getting up from the puddle I had landed in I went to brush off the worst of it when I saw what my hands was covered in. Screeching I ran to Natsu full speed as I took in the red dripping down my hands. When I reached him he protectively stood in front of me looking around with care this time.
"The blood is pretty fresh Lucy, maybe a half day old." He heard as I rustled through my bag to get a change of clothes and a pack of wipes. "I won't look, go ahead and change." He whispered, crouching down to get a better look at the puddle of blood. As he did that I quickly stripped and got to work cleaning the blood off my legs and arms. It took a lot of rubbing as it had already started to dry on my skin causing it to come off in flakes. Even after I got it all off I did another pass with a clean wipe to make sure I had gotten everything, leaving a trail of pink behind from how hard I scrubbed. "There are drag marks from the two closest buildings leading to the pool of blood. No footprints though, maybe whoever did this could fly? But where did the bodies go?" He hummed, looking closer at the blood. "Look at this Lucy." Before I could stop him, he stuck his hand into the blood, causing a shiver of disgust to roll though me, and pulled something out. Pulling my baby blue long sleeve shirt on over my head, I leaned over his shoulder to get a better look.
"It's a key... it doesn't look like any spirit key I've seen before, it's a lot bigger too." I quickly pulled on my faded black jeans and boots before grabbing another wipe so Natsu could set the key in my hands. Cleaning off the blood was easier said than done, there were so many crevices that I had to really dig into the key to get all the blood off. When I was done I held it out to show Natsu. It was slightly longer than my hand and about half its width. The silver key looked like it was made up of several different keys that had been melted down and pieced together.
"Are they spirit keys?" Natsu asked putting his face within an inch away from the key and poking it with his finger.
"I hope not. But considering where we are I think it's a safe bet that someone intentionally destroyed dozens of spirit keys to make this one. I just don't know why." I closed my eyes and focused on the key pushing a little bit of my magic into it to see if I felt any remnants of the spirits, but I came up empty. As I adjusted my eyes to the light I saw Natsu jump at me as a flash of lightning came our way. Looking at where the attack had come from I saw nothing but shadows as they jumped around the buildings "Thanks." I said quickly scrambling to my feet as I shoved the key into my bag before securing it on my back. Passing a hand over my keys I silently called forth Virgo and Sagittarius.
"More keys to destroy." A faint voice said from behind us. Holding tight to my ring of keys I followed the shadows as best I could. "Little girl thinks she'll save the spirits, she's wrong. Well get them one by one as we did the others until they are all gone. The rightful heirs will take their place soon enough and it's all thanks to you little girl." I dodged the bolts of lightning that came from both sides as Virgo burrowed into the ground and disappeared, leaving Sagittarius and I to distract the unknown enemy.
Unsurprisingly Natsu took the less stealthy approach and went barreling into the shadows, fire following his every step. "Natsu try not to destroy-oh Mavis." I watched in horror as one of the buildings turned to ash within seconds of Natsu tackling an attacker into the roof.
I turned away from the destruction that was Natsu and focused on where Sagittarius was firing his arrows. Arrow after arrow was shot into the forest with no success, Sagittarius, who rarely missed, hadn't been able to hit a single mark and I could tell he was getting frustrated with this new enemy. While he continued to fire into the trees we were forced to dodge the bolts of lightning that were being thrown at us from every angle. I was beginning to wonder if there were more than the two assailants considering the amount of attacks that were being shot at us when Virgo popped up behind us.
"Hime, the other attacker has been detained." Virgo said, right before I pushed her out of the way of another attack. Her usual calm demeaner turned murderous as one of her shackles fell off her wrist and crumbled to ashes. Without a word she went to ground to seek out her new prey. Since she had quickly dispatched one of the attackers I expected the same results, but it was as if this one was aware of her every move because they were able to successfully evade her attempts to pull him into the earth. At this point Sagittarius wasn't the only one getting frustrated as I heard Virgo's promise for further punishment as she sprung for the earth and landed on a tree branch. The sudden change in tactics momentarily distracted our shadow attacker, enabling Sagittarius to notch three arrows and let them fly.
For the first time an arrow hit its mark. I watched as the shadow stumbled out of the tree and landed heavily on the ground. Whoever it was didn't move after landing, and while I usually would have run to check if he was dead I could honestly say I didn't care about this one. He…or she, was responsible for the spirits disappearance and the destruction of so many keys. A little part of me hoped that they were dead, even though it would have been nice to have more people to interrogate once Natsu finished up.
"Hime, both attackers have been taken to the King to be questioned. He wished for me to tell you that he will begin questioning them shortly and Loke will relay all information later." Despite the fight, and missing shackle she looked perfectly put together except for the oozing burn on her wrist. It was bleeding steadily, something that I hadn't seen a spirit's wound do before, as it slowly knitted itself back together. She followed my gaze and covered the wound with her hand. "Shall I-"
A flash of light came streaking towards us from above, after a brief glance I knew that this was different from the other attacks. "Take these to Erik." I ordered as I shoved all but one of my keys into her hands and sent Sagittarius back to the spirit world despite his protest. She hesitated for a second looking as if she was going to refuse before finally disappearing. I barely had time to sigh in relief before the whole area exploded as the light hit the ground a few feet away from me, sending me flying backwards in a sea of darkness.
Natsu Pov
"Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang." I hadn't had this much fun in a while I thought as I jumped after the shadow that was shooting pathetic bolts of lightning at me and Lucy. While weak the attacker was fast and kept dodging my flames at every turn. Taking note from Virgo I held my position at the top of a tree and waited for an opening. When I saw the shadow stop just below me on the roof of one of the buildings I grinned.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist" I yelled right before my fist reached its target. The building was anything but stable to begin with, but I wasn't expecting it to turn to ash the second my flames touched it, nor did I expect to fall into a deep ass hole as our attacker shook off my attack and disappeared. I tried to stop my decent by digging into the walls but every time I touched a section it'd slip away. I growled in frustration as I continued to fall, only stopping when my back slammed into a metal beam that ran from one side of the hole to the other. Drawing in a deep breath I maneuvered myself to my feet on the bar only to fall a moment later as the earth shook from an explosion. Watching as a dust cloud blew overhead I scrambled to my feet again yelling with everything I had. "Lucy! Lucy!"
Seeing a figure fly over the hole I growled in anger knowing Lucy had been caught in the explosion. "Fire Dragon's Claw" I yelled repeatedly, using the move to propel me to the top of the hole. When I finally landed at the edge of the hole the dust cloud had already settled and I could clearly see everything that had been here before the explosion had been decimated.
Praying that Lucy had someone survived I sniffed the air hoping to catch her scent but found nothing. Instead I started frantically looking for her in the direction I saw the figure fly. It was like the Clock situation all over again, finding a Lucy in a sea of debris hoping against hope that she was fine. Shouting her name as I went I got more and more worried the longer I went without finding her. Pulling at my hair as I turned in circles looking for any sign of her I shouted her name again and got nothing but an echo as a reply. The forest was mocking me. I had just gotten her back only for it to steal her away. In anger I spewed fire into the tree line hoping to burn it down, but nothing happened to the damn trees. My anger at the forest immediately dissipated when I heard a moan of pain coming from it. Instantly I cut off my flames and raced toward the sound. My first step into the forest I heard a crack of glass, as I stepped on something that produced the same moan.
Stepping back, I feel to my knees and wiped away the debris and dirt to find Lucy's clock spirit.
Let her be okay. Let her be okay. Please, Mavis…
I was afraid to ask but I did anyways. "Horologium, is she okay? Are you okay?" I asked helping him up from the ground. I tried peering through the glass to get a look at Lucy but it was covered in ask, dirt and something else that made it impossible to see. "Is she not in there? Where is she?"
"They tried to take my key from her, but she wouldn't let them. So much lightning went through her…I don't think I can release her without fear of her leaving us." The clock said tiredly, moving his hands to cradle the compartment that held Lucy.
"Why can't I see her?!" I asked in frustration as I tried wiping the class again.
"Natsu-san…Her blood is covering the glass. She hasn't said anything in a while. We need to find the little dragon. Quickly." He whispered.
Shit! Wait, if Lucy's unconscious how was he still here?! What if she used up all of her strength and he had to go back to the Spirit World? I voiced my panicked thoughts loudly, pulling at my hair.
"The King is keeping me here, just long enough for use to find Wendy-san. Please Natsu… I don't think we have much time." Horologium said with a sad look as he moved his hand and came away with blood.
Let me know what you think! Please and Thank you 3
Sorry if it seemed like I rushed through the chapter, it could be because I did and because I want to move the story along. It could have also been because I lost this chapter on my phone and freaked out, then had to rewrite it which made me dislike the chapter on principle so yeah. Anyways hoped you enjoyed. The next chapter will be in the future(maybe a month or so instead of my day by day thing I've been doing) but I will probably have a little flash back to see what Natsu did after my semi cliff hanger. ;)