The client's home is one of the larger homes in the village and the client himself looks to be one of the larger villagers, himself. I can't help but compare him to a penguin, the way he waddles around.
"The bandits, first of all, are transporting magic enhanced weapons to Seven," the client tells us when we arrive at his place. "The country has been plagued by warfare for years. It seems several powerful families are battling over the right to rule the country. Don't get involved with anyone there. If you're lucky, you'll take care of this on our side of the border."
"Lucky is my middle name," Lucy assures him, though I don't think she even has a middle name. I know she used to be called Lucky Lucy. Maybe that's what she meant? "So do you have a description of the bandits we're looking for? How they're travelling, how big the group is?"
"The group as a whole is a mystery. As far as we know none of them are wizards. The ratio of men and women is pretty even, and there seems to be about twenty members of the group in all. Their mode of transportation seems to change often, according to our intelligence.
"This shipment of weapons seems to be larger than most shipments we've seen before. I have my suspicions that the group might have enlisted the assistance of dark wizards."
"So we're looking for a group of twenty, plus some wizards, crossing the border to Seven with a shipment of weapons, using an unknown transportation method," Erza says drily.
"That's correct," the client confirms with a disgruntled shake of his head. "I'm sorry I can't give you more solid information to go by."
"We've handled worse situations with minimal information before," Lucy says, trying to sound encouraging.
"So what's our game plan? split up at the border and set off a signal if one of us spots anything suspicious?" I ask them.
"That would work," Happy offers. "Wait, do we have the support of an army? This sounds like something the capital should help us with."
"I agree with Happy," Lucy says, raising her hand. "This is a political issue. If Fiore looks like it's backing a particular side in this feud in Seven, then we could make enemies of the opposing houses."
The client shakes his head. "The capital is trusting that Fairy Tail can handle this quietly without getting the army involved."
"That's a first. Since when does anyone in authority trust us?" I ask my friends.
"It's certainly a rarity," Erza agrees. "Alright. We can handle this. Do you know what time the bandits are set to cross the border?" she asks the client.
"My intelligence has informed me that they plan to cross the border tonight."
"Then let's get going!" I jump up, ready to get moving now. "I'm all fired up! Let's kick some bandit butt!"
"You're certainly excited to ride in a vehicle. I never thought I'd see the day," Lucy tells me, exstinguishing my fire.
"More vehicles?" I ask, mortified at the idea. "I thought we were done with that!"
"We're taking a car to the border. It'll drop each of us off at an equal distance apart so we can cover the most ground," Erza tells me. "Remember? It was your idea? Or have you forgot that you're the leader for this job?"
"Oh, yeah," i recall and sigh. "Yay, more vehicles," I say sarcastically. I look at a map of Fiore that's hanging on the wall. I try picturing how far apart each of us will be. If it's just four of us, we won't be covering as much ground as we would if the whole group was here. "Guess it's the best plan we have," I admit when I'm tired of trying to figure it out.
"If you can successfully detain these bandits and stop the weapons from passing into Seven, the reward is yours. two hundred thousand jewel and three silver gate keys."
"I love the sound of three gate keys," Lucy gushes, excited.
"So sorry we can't offer more payment. Like I said before we're trying to keep this under wraps," the client tells us.
"Don't worry about it, man," I assure him. "We'll take care of this for you. Payment isn't an issue."
The four of us head out to the car that's picking us up. The ride isn't as bad as the last few have been, since we don't have far to travel. The car drops me off to take care of the first part of the border. Lucy's going to the second part, Happy is going to the third part, and Erza is going to the fourth. We all have signal flares to shoot up for emergencies.
For most of the afternoon I just sit around, bored out of my mind. I occupy some of my time with push ups and crunches, choosing to use the down time for exercising, which will keep me fired up for when the bandits show up.
"I just hope Erza and the others don't get all the fun," I tell myself.
"Whoa, it's you!" someone calls from the forest. I look in that direction and spot Aki, the girl from the forest by my house, coming toward me. She looks different, like she has a purpose or something.
"Oh, hi," I greet her, looking around her to make sure we're safe to talk. "What are you doing here? I just saw you yesterday in Magnolia."
She nods. "Yeah right after I realized I was late, I hopped a train here and met up with my friends. I'm sorry I freaked out on you when you mentioned Fairy Tail. It's just that my parents have always told me guilds and guild mages are bad."
"Couldn't be further from the truth," I tell her earnestly. "Guilds are great for getting people together, and you can work with people to do jobs. It's a lot more than that, but on a basic level, guilds are pretty great and I think you should decide for yourself instead of listenin' to your family. Who's your family?"
She looks surprised at this and she smiles, "I mean, I have friends and we do jobs together like a group from a guild might," she tells me. "My parents are venom and fire wizards, they taught me magic and told me not to trust guilds."
"That's a weird thing to tell your kid." I scratch my head, confused. "Why would someone tell you not to trust guilds? Yeah the unofficial dark guilds are a pain, but guilds like Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus are great for wizards. Especially if you're just starting out. You said the other day you're a new Celestial Wizard, right?"
She nods. "I am! I use fire and venom magic because of my parents, but I always thought Celestial Magic was amazing so I'm training to become a celestial mage! I have a few silver keys, but nothing that powerful yet."
Something around her neck flashes and Aki jumps, rubbing at her neck. She turns around and i spot something come out of the shadows behind her. I grab her and pull her behind me, protecting her from the obvious threat. "Aki, you should leave. This guy looks like bad news," I warn her.
"Natsu," she mumbles behind me. "That's one of the people I was meeting here, Adam. Adam, meet Natsu. He's got a cheesy name too."
So uh, I kind of took some liberties with giving Seven a story, enough to use it in my plot. If it sound lame, whatever. It doesn't matter in the slightest.